L & S Advisors Inc Invests $9.82 Million in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

L & S Advisors Inc bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 196,648 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,817,000. Freeport-McMoRan accounts for about 1.0% of L & S Advisors Inc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.4% during the third quarter. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. now owns 47,144 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,357,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the third quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,777 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,037,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.2% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 4,577 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $228,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.0% during the third quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 11,681 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $560,000 after buying an additional 231 shares during the period. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.4% during the third quarter. Prospera Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,548 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Scotiabank dropped their price target 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. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX opened at $43.85 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $63.01 billion, a PE ratio of 31.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $46.82 and a 200-day moving average of $47.22. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $36.04 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.33.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The firm’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio 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.