Raymond James Issues Pessimistic Forecast for FCX Earnings

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) – Analysts at Raymond James decreased their Q4 2024 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report issued on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James analyst B. Macarthur now forecasts that the natural resource company will post earnings of $0.43 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $0.44. Raymond James has a “Outperform” rating and a $57.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Freeport-McMoRan’s current full-year earnings is $1.58 per share. Raymond James also issued estimates for Freeport-McMoRan’s Q1 2025 earnings at $0.52 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $46.60 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $66.94 billion, a PE ratio of 41.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.90. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 22.8% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 135,608 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,591,000 after purchasing an additional 25,214 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,823.1% in the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 249,885 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $11,750,000 after purchasing an additional 236,891 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,698,442 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,675,241,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,833 shares in the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter valued at approximately $770,000. Finally, Verde Servicos Internacionais S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter valued at approximately $5,515,000. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

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.