Legal & General Group Plc Lowers Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,518,984 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 183,253 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.52% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $381,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FCX. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,807 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 2,882 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 9,616 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $366,000 after buying an additional 507 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter worth $560,000. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 27.0% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 12,443 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $539,000 after buying an additional 2,648 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 42.7% in the 2nd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 50,114 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,172,000 after buying an additional 14,992 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on FCX. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $74.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. HSBC boosted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $77.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $75.00 price target on Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.72.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 3.8%

FCX opened at $64.32 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $92.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.21, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $35.15 and a 12 month high of $70.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $61.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.79.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.10. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 10.34%.The firm had revenue of $6.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.96%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

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.