Hancock Whitney Corp Cuts Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Hancock Whitney Corp trimmed its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 14,812 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 5,123 shares during the quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $739,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Easterly Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 137.5% during the third quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 147,735 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $7,375,000 after acquiring an additional 85,542 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,559.3% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 76,493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,819,000 after purchasing an additional 71,883 shares during the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 16.2% during the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 92,224 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,604,000 after purchasing an additional 12,887 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 33.3% during the 3rd quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 432,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $21,572,000 after buying an additional 107,852 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 202,440 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $10,393,000 after buying an additional 35,972 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FCX. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $43.48 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $46.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.05. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $36.04 and a 1-year high of $55.24. The firm has a market cap of $62.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 21.90%.

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.