Empirical Finance LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 49,387 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 1,055 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,465,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FCX. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.3% in the first quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,243 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 29,041 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 2,342 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,698,442 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,675,241,000 after acquiring an additional 1,210,833 shares during the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 17,401 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $818,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Barn Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter valued at $241,000. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $42.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.33. The company has a market capitalization of $61.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $46.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.37. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.29 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.