Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors bought 117,081 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 68% compared to the typical volume of 69,723 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,369,409 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,451,285,000 after purchasing an additional 305,912 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 59,752,726 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,543,676,000 after acquiring an additional 419,603 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,710,695 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,371,604,000 after acquiring an additional 1,030,451 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,157,118 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $994,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,551,828 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,756,034 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $662,123,000 after acquiring an additional 709,114 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

FCX opened at $50.48 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $44.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.35. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52 week low of $32.83 and a 52 week high of $52.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.41 billion, a PE ratio of 44.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 26.55%.

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.