Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $52.42.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. Raymond James raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Matrix Trust Co purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter worth $25,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 487.8% during the 4th quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 723 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 150.4% during the third quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 576 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the period. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 46.8% in the third quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 740 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $39.07 on Thursday. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $36.26 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.33. The stock has a market cap of $56.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $41.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $44.08.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.