Cetera Investment Advisers Buys 145,835 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 26.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 688,431 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 145,835 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $40,466,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,619,611,000 after buying an additional 1,572,769 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,880,757 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,244,504,000 after acquiring an additional 622,343 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,873,136 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,193,327,000 after acquiring an additional 395,226 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,897,202,000 after acquiring an additional 8,891,743 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 34,262,241 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,740,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,130,046 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on FCX. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. HSBC raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $75.00 in a report on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $78.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.18.

More Freeport-McMoRan News

Here are the key news stories impacting Freeport-McMoRan this week:

• Positive Sentiment: FCX reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $0.74 and revenue of $7.03 billion, both ahead of Wall Street estimates, helped by higher realized copper and gold prices. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Management said the Grasberg ramp remains on schedule, U.S. operations are improving, and the brownfield copper pipeline is expanding, which supports longer-term production growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Royal Bank of Canada raised its price target on FCX to $73 from $70, signaling continued analyst confidence in the stock’s upside. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Several recent writeups highlighted strong income growth, free cash flow, and the benefit of firmer copper prices, reinforcing the investment case for FCX. Article Title

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 1.5%

NYSE FCX opened at $62.54 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $63.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $62.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.15 and a 52 week high of $72.28. The company has a market capitalization of $89.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.37.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 11.39%.The firm’s revenue was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.54 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 14.78%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.