Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Increases Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 180,018 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,402 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $8,987,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter valued at about $277,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.4% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,599,705 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $122,238,000 after purchasing an additional 84,350 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 42.1% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 142,639 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $6,701,000 after purchasing an additional 42,267 shares in the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,577.6% during the 1st quarter. Castleark Management LLC now owns 152,830 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $7,186,000 after buying an additional 143,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,266 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $483,000 after buying an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FCX. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $44.40 on Tuesday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $36.04 and a one year high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $63.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.41, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $46.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $47.05.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.90%.

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.