Argus Boosts Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $54.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) had its price objective raised by equities researchers at Argus from $44.00 to $54.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "buy" rating on the natural resource company's stock. Argus' price objective would indicate a potential upside of 9.31% from the stock's current price.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock traded up $1.16 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $49.40. The company had a trading volume of 15,961,049 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,933,012. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $70.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 2.04. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.20. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. Freeport-McMoRan's revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FCX. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

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.