Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The natural resource company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.52 EPS.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $48.98 on Tuesday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $52.42. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.06. The company has a market cap of $70.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.57, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded 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. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.23.

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.