Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) CAO Stephen Higgins Sells 28,423 Shares

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) CAO Stephen Higgins sold 28,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.99, for a total transaction of $1,364,019.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 105,294 shares in the company, valued at $5,053,059.06. This trade represents a 21.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.5%

FCX opened at $47.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company has a market cap of $68.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.43. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.66 and a fifty-two week high of $49.12.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The firm had revenue of $6.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.74 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.50 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Hsbc Global Res raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. CICC Research decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $51.60 to $42.30 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.30.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 128,760,188 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $5,049,975,000 after purchasing an additional 1,776,241 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,258,414 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,480,995,000 after acquiring an additional 899,699 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,477,910 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,450,384,000 after acquiring an additional 690,736 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,421,549,000 after acquiring an additional 5,661,958 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 190.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,431,326,000 after acquiring an additional 23,950,557 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Freeport-McMoRan

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.