JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $42.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its target price cut by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $52.00 to $42.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

FCX has been the topic of several other reports. Scotiabank cut their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Dbs Bank raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Argus cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.88.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $33.36 on Thursday. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $27.66 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $47.94 billion, a PE ratio of 25.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.06.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.26%.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,692,191,000 after acquiring an additional 642,776 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 5,735,171 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,122,922,000 after buying an additional 688,240 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,123,445,000 after buying an additional 2,191,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,055,524 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $916,037,000 after acquiring an additional 750,500 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently 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.