Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Makes New Investment in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 21,211 shares of the natural resource company's stock, valued at approximately $808,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of FCX. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,388,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $4,692,191,000 after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 5.4% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 8,195 shares during the period. Finally, PGGM Investments raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 220.3% in the fourth quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 40,467 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $1,541,000 after buying an additional 27,834 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FCX. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. StockNews.com downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wolfe Research raised Freeport-McMoRan from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $39.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Raymond James reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $52.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed 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. Five investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $48.36.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 1.8%

FCX traded up $0.67 during trading on Monday, hitting $38.69. 4,022,779 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,593,104. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.86. The firm has a market cap of $55.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.97, a P/E/G 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.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.