Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Shares Down 1.1% - Here's Why

Key Points

• Freeport-McMoRan shares fell 1.1% to about $72.47, with trading volume 56% below the average daily level.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $76.22, although recent recommendations and targets were mixed.
• The company exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $0.74 in EPS and $7.03 billion in revenue, while declaring a $0.075 quarterly dividend yielding approximately 0.4%.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) traded down 1.1% on Tuesday. The company traded as low as $71.51 and last traded at $72.4710. 7,095,568 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 56% from the average daily volume of 16,178,953 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.29.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $70.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $76.22.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.70, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.39. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $71.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $7.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.54 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.87 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a $0.0750 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan's payout ratio is presently 14.78%.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, EVP Douglas N. Currault II sold 80,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.56, for a total transaction of $6,284,800.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 211,016 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,577,416.96. This represents a 27.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 4,773 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $334,110.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 36,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,520,000. This represents a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 110,398 shares of company stock valued at $8,387,271 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.73% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,485,424 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $4,181,268,000 after acquiring an additional 2,300,416 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 42,345,502 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $2,489,069,000 after purchasing an additional 7,044,775 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,918,066 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $938,197,000 after purchasing an additional 1,810,698 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 11,819,898 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $743,353,000 after purchasing an additional 1,125,982 shares during the period. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at $739,890,000. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc NYSE: FCX is a leading international mining company focused primarily on the exploration, development and production of copper, gold and molybdenum. Copper is its principal product and is used in electrical systems, construction, transportation, renewable energy infrastructure and other industrial applications. The company also produces copper cathodes and concentrates, gold, molybdenum products and certain quantities of silver and other byproducts.

Freeport-McMoRan operates a portfolio of mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.

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