Marathon Asset Management Ltd Reduces Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Marathon Asset Management Ltd lessened its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 10.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 368,180 shares of the natural resource company's stock after selling 44,070 shares during the period. Marathon Asset Management Ltd's holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $13,939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,388,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $4,692,191,000 after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $351,041,000 after purchasing an additional 6,486,011 shares during the period. Community Bank N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 18.5% in the first quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 39,571 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,498,000 after purchasing an additional 6,188 shares during the period. Finally, PGGM Investments boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 220.3% in the fourth quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 40,467 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,541,000 after purchasing an additional 27,834 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 price target (up previously from $48.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Friday, April 25th. Wolfe Research upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $39.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Scotiabank upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $43.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $47.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $48.27.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $43.83 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $62.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.64. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.66 and a 52 week high of $52.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $39.22 and a 200 day moving average of $38.18.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.11% and a return on equity of 7.03%. Freeport-McMoRan's revenue for the quarter was down 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. Freeport-McMoRan's payout ratio is presently 24.79%.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 now directly owns 48,333 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.75% of the company's stock.

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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