Royal Bank of Canada Issues Positive Forecast for Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock Price

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) had its target price increased by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,BayStreet.CA reports. The firm currently has a "sector perform" rating on the natural resource company's stock. Royal Bank of Canada's price target indicates a potential upside of 30.12% from the company's previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on FCX. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 price objective (up from $48.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Raymond James reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $47.82.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock traded down $0.19 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $41.50. The company had a trading volume of 8,500,990 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,406,215. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $27.66 and a fifty-two week high of $52.61. The firm's fifty day moving average is $36.45 and its 200-day moving average is $38.32. The company has a market cap of $59.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.64.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. Freeport-McMoRan's revenue for the quarter was down 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the business'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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 48,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,934,286.66. The trade was a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.75% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth about $3,388,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $351,041,000 after buying an additional 6,486,011 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 159,536 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $6,075,000 after buying an additional 8,195 shares during the period. Finally, PGGM Investments boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 220.3% during the 4th quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 40,467 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,541,000 after buying an additional 27,834 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.