SpiderRock Advisors LLC Makes New $1.52 Million Investment in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

SpiderRock Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 30,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,524,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.3% in the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 64,053 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,012,000 after acquiring an additional 203 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 55.7% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 30,229 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,421,000 after acquiring an additional 10,820 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 20.1% in the first quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 6,160 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,032 shares during the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 12.7% in the first quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 9,549 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $449,000 after acquiring an additional 1,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.0% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 566,772 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $26,650,000 after buying an additional 21,889 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on FCX. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $46.36 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $46.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $47.58. The company has a market cap of $66.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.84, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.91.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.90%.

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.