Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Purchases 198,947 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,872,974 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 198,947 shares during the quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $299,803,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 11,687,982 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $857,305,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,531 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,103 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew 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 worth $1,348,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,366,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,965,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE:FCX opened at $37.57 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $53.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.12, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.18. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.98 and a 1 year high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. Equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.75.

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.