Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 4,910 Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 4,910 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Webster Bank N. A. increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6,469.2% during the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 854 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 841 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 122.5% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 930 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bernstein Bank boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $52.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. HSBC boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.15.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE FCX opened at $48.00 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $68.85 billion, a PE ratio of 37.80, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 2.04. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $52.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $44.02 and a 200-day moving average of $40.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.62%.

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.