Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX Shares Bought by Guggenheim Capital LLC

Key Points

• Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 5.8%, acquiring an additional 15,693 shares, bringing their total holdings to 285,175 shares valued at approximately $10.8 million.
• Freeport-McMoRan announced a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share, with an annualized basis yielding 1.4% and a payout ratio of 22.73%.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Freeport-McMoRan, with two strong buy ratings, eight buy ratings, and an average target price of $51.00 despite some price targets being lowered recently.

Guggenheim Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 5.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 285,175 shares of the natural resource company's stock after buying an additional 15,693 shares during the period. Guggenheim Capital LLC's holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $10,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter worth approximately $366,959,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 13.7% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 2,642,810 shares during the last quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,354.9% in the 1st quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 2,641,129 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $100,001,000 after purchasing an additional 2,459,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 26.2% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,634,713 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $440,490,000 after purchasing an additional 2,416,195 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on FCX. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and increased their target price for the company from $45.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE FCX traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $44.42. The company had a trading volume of 7,369,039 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,157,981. The stock has a market cap of $63.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.65, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.59. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.65. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.66 and a 52-week high of $52.61.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.73%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total transaction of $343,531.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 48,333 shares in the company, valued at $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.