Clearbridge Investments LLC Lowers Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Clearbridge Investments LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,367,924 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 41,386 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 0.93% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $509,051,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 487.8% in the 4th quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 723 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Argus downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of FCX opened at $38.36 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $33.98 and a one year high of $55.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. The company has a market capitalization of $55.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.26%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.