Clough Capital Partners L P Purchases 87,360 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Key Points

• Clough Capital Partners L P has increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. by 29.7%, acquiring an additional 87,360 shares to reach a total of 381,740 shares.
• Freeport-McMoRan reported earnings of $0.54 per share, surpassing analysts' expectations of $0.45, and its revenue for the quarter reached $7.58 billion, which is higher than the anticipated $6.85 billion.
• The firm recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share with an annualized yield of 1.4%, reflecting a payout ratio of 22.73%.

Clough Capital Partners L P increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 29.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 381,740 shares of the natural resource company's stock after purchasing an additional 87,360 shares during the quarter. Freeport-McMoRan makes up 1.8% of Clough Capital Partners L P's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Clough Capital Partners L P's holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $14,453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 125,042,285 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $4,734,101,000 after buying an additional 1,822,987 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,421,549,000 after acquiring an additional 5,661,958 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position 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. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 16.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,162,058 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $498,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815,285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.7% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,968,781 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $453,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,133,846 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $56.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price target for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 26th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Freeport-McMoRan from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock traded up $0.50 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $44.90. The company had a trading volume of 12,103,433 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,512,555. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $27.66 and a one year high of $52.61. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.21. The firm has a market cap of $64.47 billion, a PE ratio of 34.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.59.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 7.45%.The firm's revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.46 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan's payout ratio is presently 22.73%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

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.