Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 117,081 call options on the company. This is an increase of 68% compared to the typical daily volume of 69,723 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FCX. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13,248.4% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,351,630 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $227,747,000 after purchasing an additional 5,311,538 shares in the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter worth about $160,160,000. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter worth about $141,407,000. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 57.4% in the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,391,230 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $201,039,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965,987 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 302.7% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,393,264 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $112,531,000 after acquiring an additional 1,799,028 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on FCX. HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bernstein Bank raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $52.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

NYSE FCX opened at $50.48 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $52.42. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $44.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.35. The company has a market capitalization of $72.41 billion, a PE ratio of 44.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.52 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

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.