Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Shares Sold by US Bancorp DE

Key Points

• US Bancorp DE reduced its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. by 4.4%, now owning approximately 184,209 shares valued at $6.97 million.
• Freeport-McMoRan reported a net margin of 7.45% with quarterly earnings surpassing estimates, achieving $0.54 EPS against the $0.45 consensus.
• The company recently declared a $0.15 quarterly dividend, which amounts to an annualized yield of 1.5% and represents a payout ratio of 22.73%.

US Bancorp DE lowered its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 4.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 184,209 shares of the natural resource company's stock after selling 8,471 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE's holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $6,974,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FCX. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,214,203,000 after acquiring an additional 5,735,171 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,055,524 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $916,037,000 after purchasing an additional 750,500 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,642,810 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,441,112 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $626,078,000 after buying an additional 1,335,181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,175,580 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $387,486,000 after buying an additional 869,691 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FCX. Citigroup upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. UBS Group lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating and set a $52.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Freeport-McMoRan from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and upped their target price for the company from $45.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $51.00.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total value of $343,531.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 48,333 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.79% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.5%

NYSE:FCX traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.85. The company had a trading volume of 9,494,744 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,172,670. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.19, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.63. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $52.61. 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 (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $7.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 7.45%. The company's revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.46 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.