Thompson Investment Management Inc. Lowers Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Thompson Investment Management Inc. trimmed its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 129,207 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,851 shares during the quarter. Thompson Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $4,920,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,891,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,436,455,000 after purchasing an additional 529,099 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,348,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 8,223,038 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $410,494,000 after purchasing an additional 127,251 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Raymond James raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $48.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.46.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of FCX stock opened at $38.27 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $39.36 and a 200 day moving average of $43.06. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $54.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.85. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $34.89 and a twelve month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

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.