Guardian Partners Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 62,165 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,470,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $857,305,000 after buying an additional 5,001,531 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after buying an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

NYSE FCX opened at $40.31 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $38.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $33.98 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FCX shares. Dbs Bank upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Argus cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

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.