Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Downgraded to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $40.31 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.93 billion, a PE ratio of 31.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.97. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52 week low of $33.98 and a 52 week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted 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 return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,692,191,000 after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after acquiring an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after acquiring an additional 5,735,171 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,122,922,000 after acquiring an additional 688,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,123,445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,191,926 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.