Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX Shares Bought by LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.

Key Points

• LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. significantly increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan, acquiring an additional 81,900 shares for a total of 89,862 shares worth approximately $3.9 million.
• Multiple institutional investors, including Vanguard Group and Price T Rowe Associates, raised their positions in Freeport-McMoRan, illustrating strong institutional interest, which now accounts for 80.77% of the company's stock ownership.
• Freeport-McMoRan reported a quarterly earnings beat with an EPS of $0.54 against an expected $0.45, alongside a revenue of $7.58 billion, which was above analysts' forecasts.

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 1,028.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 89,862 shares of the natural resource company's stock after acquiring an additional 81,900 shares during the period. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.'s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,896,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 worth $4,734,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,987 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,942,063 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $830,726,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 16.0% during the 1st 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. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FCX. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $56.00 to $52.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Johnson Rice cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $45.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $45.00 price target (down from $55.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.74.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of FCX opened at $39.66 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $42.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 2.47. The company has a market capitalization of $56.94 billion, a PE ratio of 30.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.58. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.66 and a fifty-two week high of $51.19.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.45% and a return on equity of 7.37%. The company had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.46 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan's payout ratio is currently 22.73%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.

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