Thornburg Investment Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 50.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,794,794 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 939,941 shares during the period. Freeport-McMoRan comprises 1.8% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.19% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $141,948,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $6,619,611,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572,769 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,880,757 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,244,504,000 after buying an additional 622,343 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,873,136 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,193,327,000 after buying an additional 395,226 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,897,202,000 after buying an additional 8,891,743 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 190.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,431,326,000 after buying an additional 23,950,557 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $68.28 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 1.13. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.15 and a 1 year high of $72.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.18. The company has a market cap of $98.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.32, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.35.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th were paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is presently 15.96%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FCX. Wall Street Zen raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $71.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $77.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. HSBC lifted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.86.

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.