Brokerages Set Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Target Price at $49.23

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $50.07.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on FCX shares. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price 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, April 24th. Bernstein Bank raised their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $52.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 3.8 %

FCX opened at $52.41 on Tuesday. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $32.83 and a twelve month high of $52.52. The company has a fifty day moving average of $44.97 and a 200-day moving average of $40.51. The stock has a market cap of $75.18 billion, a PE ratio of 46.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.41, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 119,369,409 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,451,285,000 after buying an additional 305,912 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 59,752,726 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,543,676,000 after purchasing an additional 419,603 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,710,695 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,371,604,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030,451 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,157,118 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $994,808,000 after purchasing an additional 1,551,828 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,756,034 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $662,123,000 after purchasing an additional 709,114 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.