Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) CAO Stephen T. Higgins Sells 43,900 Shares

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 43,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.08, for a total value of $2,242,412.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,331,577.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of FCX stock opened at $50.45 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $45.86 and a 200-day moving average of $40.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $72.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.65, a PEG ratio of 8.19 and a beta of 2.02. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $52.52.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on FCX shares. StockNews.com raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.07.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tompkins Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% in the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% in the first quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 40,083 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,885,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% during the first quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 794 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 17,417 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $819,000 after buying an additional 222 shares during the period. Finally, Archford Capital Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% in the first quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 18,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $869,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.