Douglas Currault II Sells 80,000 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) EVP Douglas Currault II sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.56, for a total transaction of $6,284,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 211,016 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,577,416.96. The trade was a 27.49% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX traded down $0.86 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $79.05. 18,321,404 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,109,145. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.15 and a twelve month high of $80.24. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $63.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 2.07. The company has a market cap of $113.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.94, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.37.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 11.39%.The business had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.78%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. CICC Research lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $64.40 to $63.40 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Friday, May 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.27.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 6,434.3% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 142,181,964 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,941,824,000 after purchasing an additional 140,006,047 shares during the period. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $739,890,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 98.8% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 19,973,108 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,014,434,000 after purchasing an additional 9,924,573 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after buying an additional 8,891,743 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 102.5% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 14,211,579 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $721,806,000 after acquiring an additional 7,192,955 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.