North Star Investment Management Corp. Boosts Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

North Star Investment Management Corp. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 34.3% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 67,807 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,315 shares during the period. North Star Investment Management Corp.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,385,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,698,442 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $5,675,241,000 after buying an additional 1,210,833 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 72,896,288 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,427,583,000 after purchasing an additional 13,143,562 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 36,882,874 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,734,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,392,800 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 40.9% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,155,256 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $712,600,000 after purchasing an additional 4,396,309 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 14,454,789 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $679,664,000 after purchasing an additional 200,877 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FCX. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 1.1 %

FCX stock traded up $0.51 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $46.78. The company had a trading volume of 1,746,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,882,661. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company has a market capitalization of $67.22 billion, a PE ratio of 33.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.91. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $46.22 and a 200 day moving average of $47.62. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.90%.

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.