Capital World Investors Raises Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,055,524 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 750,500 shares during the period. Capital World Investors owned approximately 1.67% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $916,037,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the third quarter worth $754,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth about $3,388,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 66,699 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 18,852 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,692,191,000 after acquiring an additional 642,776 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $39.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Dbs Bank upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.39.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $32.90 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $47.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.71. The company’s fifty day moving average is $36.66 and its 200-day moving average is $40.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.66 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.26%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.