Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $39.00, but opened at $41.75. Freeport-McMoRan shares last traded at $40.6350, with a volume of 4,832,833 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FCX. Citigroup upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. CICC Research lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $51.60 to $42.30 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.73.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 4.0%

The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.94, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.84.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The company had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.13%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 190.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,431,326,000 after purchasing an additional 23,950,557 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter valued at about $366,959,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 89.4% in the 2nd quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 17,569,169 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $761,623,000 after acquiring an additional 8,292,873 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crake Asset Management LLP lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 2,140.8% in the 1st quarter. Crake Asset Management LLP now owns 5,929,623 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $224,496,000 after purchasing an additional 5,665,000 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.