Alps Advisors Inc. Buys 35,793 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 19.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 216,960 shares of the natural resource company's stock after purchasing an additional 35,793 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $8,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter worth $3,388,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 642,776 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $351,041,000 after acquiring an additional 6,486,011 shares in the last quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 238.5% during the first quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 64,519 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $2,443,000 after acquiring an additional 45,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Community Bank N.A. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 18.5% during the first quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 39,571 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,498,000 after acquiring an additional 6,188 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total transaction of $343,531.68. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 48,333 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,934,286.66. This trade represents a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. UBS Group downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Friday. Wall Street Zen downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

FCX traded down $0.84 during trading on Friday, reaching $46.37. The stock had a trading volume of 17,116,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,804,602. The stock has a market cap of $66.64 billion, a PE ratio of 38.32, a PEG ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 2.32. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $27.66 and a one year high of $52.61. The business has a 50-day moving average of $41.09 and a 200-day moving average of $38.54.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.03% and a net margin of 7.11%. The firm's revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.