Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Trims Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Key Points

• Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA reduced its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 53.4% during Q2, ending with 22,341 shares valued at approximately $968,000.
• Several institutional investors, including Vanguard Group and Price T Rowe Associates, have increased their stakes in Freeport-McMoRan, contributing to a total of 80.77% institutional ownership.
• Freeport-McMoRan reported a 14.5% rise in quarterly revenue year-over-year, with earnings per share of $0.54, surpassing analyst estimates.

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA cut its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 53.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,341 shares of the natural resource company's stock after selling 25,564 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA's holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $968,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 125,042,285 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $4,734,101,000 after buying an additional 1,822,987 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake 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 valued at $1,421,549,000 after acquiring an additional 5,661,958 shares during the period. Amundi increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,046,280,000 after acquiring an additional 6,054,537 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 2,642,810 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,162,058 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $498,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815,285 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FCX. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $42.50 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. HSBC cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $43.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Johnson Rice lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Monday. Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Freeport-McMoRan from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $46.81.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $39.24 on Wednesday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $42.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a market cap of $56.34 billion, a PE ratio of 29.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.59. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.66 and a twelve month high of $51.45.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

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

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.

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