Allianz SE Increases Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Key Points

• Allianz SE increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 22.8%, owning 180,591 shares worth approximately $6.84 million.
• Various institutional investors, including Price T Rowe Associates and Deutsche Bank AG, have also significantly boosted their holdings in Freeport-McMoRan in recent quarters.
• Analysts have raised price targets for Freeport-McMoRan, with JPMorgan Chase lifting theirs from $42 to $56, indicating strong investor confidence and a forecast of continued growth.

Allianz SE boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 22.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 180,591 shares of the natural resource company's stock after buying an additional 33,589 shares during the period. Allianz SE's holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $6,837,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FCX. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% in 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 period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 13.7% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,942,063 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $830,726,000 after acquiring an additional 2,642,810 shares during the period. Phoenix Financial Ltd. lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1,354.9% in the first quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 2,641,129 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $100,001,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,598 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 39.2% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,469,258 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $208,269,000 after acquiring an additional 1,539,124 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 153.8% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 2,477,217 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $94,332,000 after acquiring an additional 1,501,277 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Wolfe Research raised Freeport-McMoRan from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $39.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Freeport-McMoRan

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction on Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total value of $343,531.68. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 48,333 shares in the company, valued at $1,934,286.66. This trade represents a 15.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of FCX stock opened at $40.04 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.66 and a twelve month high of $52.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $42.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a market capitalization of $57.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.33, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 1.63.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.45% and a return on equity of 7.37%. The firm had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRan's revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast 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 Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.73%.

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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