Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Lowers Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV reduced its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 18.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 121,941 shares of the natural resource company's stock after selling 28,338 shares during the quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV's holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $4,644,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 47.4% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 833 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 22,910 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $872,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the last quarter. Palogic Value Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Palogic Value Management L.P. now owns 20,277 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $772,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,104 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $727,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 36,514 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,451,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $42.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Raymond James restated an "outperform" rating and set a $52.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Friday, April 25th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 price target (up previously from $48.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $48.09.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX stock traded down $0.26 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $37.34. The company had a trading volume of 7,699,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,722,426. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.66 and a 12-month high of $55.24. The company has a market capitalization of $53.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.95, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $36.18 and a 200-day moving average of $39.40.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were issued 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 1.61%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is currently 24.79%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.