Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Plans $0.07 Quarterly Dividend

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.075 per share by the natural resource company on Monday, November 2nd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th.

Freeport-McMoRan has increased its dividend by an average of 0.6%per year over the last three years. Freeport-McMoRan has a payout ratio of 13.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Freeport-McMoRan to earn $3.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.0%.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $72.63 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $69.35 and a 200-day moving average of $64.98. The firm has a market cap of $104.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.41. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $35.15 and a twelve month high of $80.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on FCX shares. Erste Group Bank assumed coverage on Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $76.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.29.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a global mining company focused primarily on the exploration, development and production of copper, gold and molybdenum. Copper is its principal product and is used in electrical wiring, construction, transportation, industrial equipment and renewable-energy technologies. The company also produces gold as a byproduct of its copper operations and molybdenum, an alloying metal used in steelmaking and other industrial applications.

Freeport-McMoRan operates major mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.