Financial Counselors Inc. Grows Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Financial Counselors Inc. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 185.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,742 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 12,166 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $936,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter worth about $423,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 239.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 291,025 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $13,684,000 after buying an additional 205,286 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 70.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 65,178 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,065,000 after acquiring an additional 26,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,081 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $354,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FCX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Raymond James raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $44.20 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.04 and a 12-month high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 17.26 and a beta of 1.91. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.89.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.90%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.