Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Acquires 16,040 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,575,357 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,040 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $168,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Tompkins Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% during the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% during the 1st quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 794 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 17,417 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $819,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the period. Foster Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 32,050 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,507,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 10,606 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. BNP Paribas raised Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Argus boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.93.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $2,153,318.45. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at $5,255,381.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total value of $2,153,318.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,255,381.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Douglas N. Currault II sold 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.99, for a total value of $2,859,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 164,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,529,843.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 445,667 shares of company stock worth $22,755,070. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE FCX traded up $2.31 on Wednesday, reaching $51.02. 3,794,502 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,916,135. The stock has a market cap of $73.29 billion, a PE ratio of 43.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.92. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $55.24. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.41.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 6.97%. The firm had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.