Teacher Retirement System of Texas Sells 20,755 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas decreased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 19.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 84,752 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 20,755 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,227,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Asset Planning Inc purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 487.8% in the fourth quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 723 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 3.5 %

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $43.08 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.98 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $61.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.40, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $38.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.00.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. Sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on FCX. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Argus lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $48.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Dbs Bank raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.04.

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.