Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Sells 10,947 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc decreased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 952,308 shares of the natural resource company's stock after selling 10,947 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned about 0.07% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $36,264,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $4,692,191,000 after buying an additional 642,776 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 5,735,171 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 688,240 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,123,445,000 after purchasing an additional 2,191,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,055,524 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $916,037,000 after purchasing an additional 750,500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FCX. Raymond James reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $52.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wolfe Research raised Freeport-McMoRan from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $39.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $42.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 target price (up from $48.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $48.09.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $37.76 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.66 and a 52 week high of $55.24. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $36.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.17. The company has a market capitalization of $54.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.27, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.65.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan's payout ratio is currently 24.79%.

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.

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