Hills Bank & Trust Co Has $1.23 Million Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Hills Bank & Trust Co reduced its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,628 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 285 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 19,091 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $898,000 after purchasing an additional 649 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.2% in the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 16,659 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $783,000 after buying an additional 3,665 shares in the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 14.3% in the first quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 13,751 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $647,000 after buying an additional 1,719 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.8% in the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 73,668 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,464,000 after buying an additional 10,612 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter valued at about $1,416,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Six investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $45.80 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $55.24. 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 $65.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.90. The business has a 50-day moving average of $46.14 and a 200-day moving average of $47.72.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.