JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $56.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) had its price target hoisted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $42.00 to $56.00 in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the natural resource company's stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on FCX. Wolfe Research raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $39.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Scotiabank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $43.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Monday, June 16th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $51.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX traded down $0.84 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $46.37. The company had a trading volume of 17,116,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,804,602. The company has a market cap of $66.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.32, a PEG ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 1.64. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52 week low of $27.66 and a 52 week high of $52.61. The business's 50-day moving average is $41.09 and its 200 day moving average is $38.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 2.32.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.11% and a return on equity of 7.03%. The company had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. The company's revenue was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.79%.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In related news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 48,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.75% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 24.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,807 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $564,000 after acquiring an additional 2,882 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 27.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 540,046 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $20,565,000 after acquiring an additional 115,552 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 47.8% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,329 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $127,000 after acquiring an additional 1,077 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 392,207 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $14,935,000 after acquiring an additional 53,118 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 193,549 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $7,370,000 after acquiring an additional 13,531 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.