SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC Grows Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,203 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 526 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $795,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.3% during the third 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 period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 63,242,717 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,529,709,000 after purchasing an additional 887,136 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,338,465 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,033,858,000 after purchasing an additional 472,160 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.2% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,756,034 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $662,123,000 after purchasing an additional 709,114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,533,638 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $628,278,000 after purchasing an additional 753,458 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on FCX shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Eight Capital set a $55.00 price target on Freeport-McMoRan and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 7th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.95.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX traded up $1.14 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $47.02. 20,168,968 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,259,128. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.67. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $47.19. The firm has a market cap of $67.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.00 and a beta of 2.02.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.04. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.09%. The firm had revenue of $5.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.62%.

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.