Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday.

FCX has been the subject of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 0.7 %

FCX stock opened at $40.72 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $38.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.99. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $33.98 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. Analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,692,191,000 after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after buying an additional 5,735,171 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,122,922,000 after acquiring an additional 688,240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,123,445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,191,926 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.