Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $48.00 to $55.00. The stock had previously closed at $50.00, but opened at $51.45. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Freeport-McMoRan shares last traded at $51.58, with a volume of 3,288,846 shares trading hands.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on FCX. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Freeport-McMoRan from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $41.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 13th. Raymond James raised their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $59.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $46.71.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 15.2% during the 1st quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 11,101 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 40.8% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 112,066 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $5,574,000 after acquiring an additional 32,474 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 73.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 132,043 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $6,624,000 after acquiring an additional 55,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 79,686 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $3,964,000 after acquiring an additional 14,388 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.84 and a 200-day moving average of $39.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.09%. Freeport-McMoRan's revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.62%.

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.