Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Raises Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 17.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,340 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 927 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $316,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,170.7% during the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 521 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Matrix Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Lynx Investment Advisory bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at $26,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $43.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.91. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.04 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $46.91 and a 200 day moving average of $46.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.33.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 21.90%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.