Ninety One SA PTY Ltd Buys Shares of 7,430 Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Ninety One SA PTY Ltd bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,430 shares of the natural resource company's stock, valued at approximately $277,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after acquiring an additional 5,735,171 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,122,922,000 after acquiring an additional 688,240 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,123,445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,191,926 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,055,524 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $916,037,000 after acquiring an additional 750,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FCX. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective 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. Citigroup upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen cut Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 price target (up from $48.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday. They set a "buy" rating and a $56.00 price target for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.64.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In related news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer owned 48,333 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.75% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX traded up $1.42 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $47.01. 13,640,635 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,710,133. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.85, a P/E/G 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 52 week low of $27.66 and a 52 week high of $52.61. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $40.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.44.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors 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 yield of 1.28%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is currently 24.79%.

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.