Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Sells 6,537 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado cut its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 193,280 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 6,537 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $7,360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $351,041,000 after buying an additional 6,486,011 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after acquiring an additional 5,735,171 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $857,305,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,531 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 38.1% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 16,273,162 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $619,682,000 after purchasing an additional 4,488,210 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on FCX shares. Wolfe Research raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $39.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Friday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Argus lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.09.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX stock opened at $37.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $53.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.88, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.71. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.79. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $27.66 and a one year high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 24.79%.

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.