Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Trading Up 0.8% - Still a Buy?

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 0.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $39.55 and last traded at $39.43. Approximately 2,445,334 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 13,645,100 shares. The stock had previously closed at $39.11.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FCX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $47.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Argus lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 price objective (up previously from $48.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Friday, April 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $48.36.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 2.3%

The business's fifty day simple moving average is $36.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $54.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.65.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 analysts' expectations of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. 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 Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is 24.79%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,822,987 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is 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.