Safeguard Financial LLC Buys Shares of 4,845 Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Safeguard Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 4,845 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1,170.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 521 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 480 shares in the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Matrix Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Lynx Investment Advisory acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on FCX. StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. BNP Paribas upgraded Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.29.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 1.0 %

FCX opened at $47.76 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $55.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.90. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.88.

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. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.