CWA Asset Management Group LLC Decreases Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

CWA Asset Management Group LLC lessened its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,367 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $139,183,000 after buying an additional 2,255,529 shares in the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 34.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 5,943,074 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $288,833,000 after buying an additional 1,538,560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after acquiring an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on FCX shares. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.96.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $39.77 on Thursday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.26 and a 12-month high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $57.15 billion, a PE ratio of 29.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.86. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $42.20 and a 200 day moving average of $44.77. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The company’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. This is a boost from Freeport-McMoRan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.90%.

Freeport-McMoRan Profile

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.