Nykredit A S Purchases New Shares in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Key Points

• Nykredit A/S acquired 169,294 Freeport-McMoRan shares during the second quarter, valued at approximately $10.65 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.77% of FCX.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, with one Strong Buy, 20 Buy, and four Hold ratings. The stock has an average “Moderate Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $70.29, while several firms recently raised their targets.
• Freeport-McMoRan beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $0.74 EPS and $7.03 billion in revenue, though revenue declined 7.3% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.075 per share, or a 0.4% annualized yield.

Nykredit A S acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 169,294 shares of the natural resource company's stock, valued at approximately $10,647,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. NBH Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Steph & Co. raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 43.7% in the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 493 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter worth $29,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Finally, Financial Life Planners bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on FCX shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. UBS Group raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. HSBC lifted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $72.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $73.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $70.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lydia H. Kennard sold 3,798 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.11, for a total transaction of $300,459.78. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 122,702 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,706,955.22. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 14,277 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $992,251.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,795,951. The trade was a 20.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 110,398 shares of company stock valued at $8,387,271 in the last quarter. 0.73% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $71.52 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $68.63 and a 200-day moving average of $64.81. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $35.15 and a one year high of $80.24. The stock has a market cap of $102.70 billion, a PE ratio of 35.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 11.39%.The company's revenue was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is presently 14.78%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a global mining company focused primarily on the exploration, development and production of copper, gold and molybdenum. Copper is its principal product and is used in electrical wiring, construction, transportation, industrial equipment and renewable-energy technologies. The company also produces gold as a byproduct of its copper operations and molybdenum, an alloying metal used in steelmaking and other industrial applications.

Freeport-McMoRan operates major mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.

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