JT Stratford LLC Makes New Investment in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

JT Stratford LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 17,988 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter worth about $366,959,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares during the period. Crake Asset Management LLP lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2,140.8% in the 1st quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP now owns 5,929,623 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $224,496,000 after purchasing an additional 5,665,000 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Markets Cayman LP purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at approximately $159,147,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on FCX. UBS Group set a $48.00 target price on Freeport-McMoRan and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. HSBC decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Raymond James Financial cut their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $46.73.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $44.46 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $40.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.10. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.66 and a 1-year high of $49.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.84 billion, a PE ratio of 31.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.49.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.74 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.84% and a net margin of 7.97%.The firm’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.13%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc engages in the mining of mineral properties in North America, South America, and Indonesia. It primarily explores for copper, gold, molybdenum, silver, and other metals. The company's assets include the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; Morenci, Bagdad, Safford, Sierrita, and Miami in Arizona; Chino and Tyrone in New Mexico; and Henderson and Climax in Colorado, North America, as well as Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile.