Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Gap Down to $48.95

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $48.95, but opened at $47.45. Freeport-McMoRan shares last traded at $47.82, with a volume of 4,282,287 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. HSBC boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Bernstein Bank boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $52.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.77.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 0.5 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $44.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.62%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% in the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% during the first quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 794 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 17,417 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $819,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% during the first quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 18,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $869,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hartford Financial Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% during the first quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 16,302 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $767,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.