Rockland Trust Co. Buys Shares of 34,724 Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Rockland Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 34,724 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,362,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter worth $28,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,962.9% during the third quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 722 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the third quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Proffitt & Goodson Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 39.8% in the 3rd quarter. Proffitt & Goodson Inc. now owns 977 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Freeport-McMoRan

In related news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 28,423 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.99, for a total transaction of $1,364,019.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 105,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,053,059.06. This represents a 21.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 9,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.66, for a total transaction of $456,201.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 38,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,847,349.26. This represents a 19.80% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FCX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $58.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Raymond James Financial increased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $53.50 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.40.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $63.26 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $69.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $54.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.45.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $5.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.42 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.50% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.31 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, January 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 19.87%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.