Royal Fund Management LLC Sells 96,991 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Royal Fund Management LLC lessened its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 94.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,600 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 96,991 shares during the quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $329,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Kemnay Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Steph & Co. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, SHP Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the topic of several research reports. CICC Research dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $64.40 to $63.40 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. HSBC lifted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Friday, June 12th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $78.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.27.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $63.43 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $91.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.24, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.37. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $63.68 and its 200 day moving average is $62.56. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.15 and a 1 year high of $72.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.78%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.