Rathbones Group PLC Grows Stock Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Rathbones Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,265,927 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 45,423 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $48,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FCX. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.7% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 164,640 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,219,000 after acquiring an additional 14,501 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter valued at about $754,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,388,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,684,393 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $84,085,000 after acquiring an additional 66,699 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 311,555 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $11,864,000 after purchasing an additional 18,852 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Dbs Bank upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Argus cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.61.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $29.14 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.25 and a 52 week high of $55.24. The stock has a market cap of $41.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.71.

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%. On average, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.26%.

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.