Wesleyan Assurance Society Takes Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Wesleyan Assurance Society bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 75,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,857,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Woodline Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter worth approximately $338,000. Twinbeech Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter worth approximately $30,819,000. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 805,528 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $30,675,000 after buying an additional 56,100 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 164,445 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,262,000 after purchasing an additional 9,364 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teza Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 172.8% in the 4th quarter. Teza Capital Management LLC now owns 39,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,496,000 after buying an additional 24,891 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $38.78 on Tuesday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.66 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The company has a market capitalization of $55.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.81. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.32 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $39.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $52.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Argus cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.36.

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.