Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday morning.

FCX has been the subject of several other reports. Argus lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of FCX opened at $40.31 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $57.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.25, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $33.98 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.97.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 164,640 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $8,219,000 after purchasing an additional 14,501 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter valued at about $754,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,388,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,684,393 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $84,085,000 after purchasing an additional 66,699 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 311,555 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $11,864,000 after purchasing an additional 18,852 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.