Scotiabank Boosts Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $53.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its target price raised by Scotiabank from $52.00 to $53.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Scotiabank currently has a sector perform rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

FCX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Raymond James upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. BNP Paribas raised Freeport-McMoRan to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a neutral rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $53.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $50.03 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $71.89 billion, a PE ratio of 37.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.90. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.83. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12-month low of $32.83 and a 12-month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.58 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.73%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State of Tennessee Treasury Department lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 67.4% during the fourth quarter. State of Tennessee Treasury Department now owns 372,555 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $15,860,000 after acquiring an additional 150,000 shares in the last quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 29.9% during the fourth quarter. Regal Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,197 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $392,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118 shares in the last quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 208.4% in the fourth quarter. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC now owns 23,217 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 15,689 shares in the last quarter. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,956,000. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 16,647,339 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $708,677,000 after purchasing an additional 595,395 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.