Hills Bank & Trust Co Acquires 595 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Hills Bank & Trust Co grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,223 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $960,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $595,702,000 after acquiring an additional 11,687,982 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $857,305,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,531 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $162,964,000 after buying an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 3.5 %

Shares of FCX stock opened at $38.91 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $33.98 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The stock has a market cap of $55.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $37.91 and a 200-day moving average of $42.15.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on FCX shares. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.75.

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.