Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Competitors

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, institutional ownership, media sentiment, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Do analysts prefer SCCO or FCX?

Southern Copper currently has a consensus price target of $91.50, indicating a potential downside of 4.83%. Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus price target of $47.82, indicating a potential upside of 16.68%. Given Freeport-McMoRan's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Freeport-McMoRan is more favorable than Southern Copper.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern Copper	2 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.86
Freeport-McMoRan	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.93

Is SCCO or FCX a better dividend stock?

Southern Copper pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Freeport-McMoRan pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Southern Copper pays out 61.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Freeport-McMoRan pays out 24.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Does the media prefer SCCO or FCX?

In the previous week, Freeport-McMoRan had 16 more articles in the media than Southern Copper. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Freeport-McMoRan and 6 mentions for Southern Copper. Southern Copper's average media sentiment score of 1.17 beat Freeport-McMoRan's score of 0.88 indicating that Southern Copper is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Southern Copper	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Freeport-McMoRan	13 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of SCCO or FCX?

7.9% of Southern Copper shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.8% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Southern Copper shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, SCCO or FCX?

Southern Copper has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Freeport-McMoRan. Southern Copper is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Freeport-McMoRan, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern Copper	$11.96B	6.40	$3.38B	$4.57	21.04
Freeport-McMoRan	$24.86B	2.37	$1.89B	$1.21	33.87

Is SCCO or FCX more profitable?

Southern Copper has a net margin of 29.53% compared to Freeport-McMoRan's net margin of 7.42%. Southern Copper's return on equity of 40.27% beat Freeport-McMoRan's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern Copper	29.53%	40.27%	19.12%
Freeport-McMoRan	7.42%	7.50%	3.92%

Which has more risk and volatility, SCCO or FCX?

Southern Copper has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freeport-McMoRan has a beta of 1.64, suggesting that its share price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in SCCO or FCX?

Freeport-McMoRan received 735 more outperform votes than Southern Copper when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.14% of users gave Freeport-McMoRan an outperform vote while only 55.46% of users gave Southern Copper an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern Copper	Outperform Votes 396 55.46%	Underperform Votes 318 44.54%
Freeport-McMoRan	Outperform Votes 1131 66.14%	Underperform Votes 579 33.86%

Summary

Freeport-McMoRan beats Southern Copper on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.