Argus Increases Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $54.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its target price lifted by research analysts at Argus from $44.00 to $54.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the natural resource company’s stock. Argus’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 10.25% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. HSBC lifted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 1.5 %

FCX stock traded up $0.74 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $48.98. 9,306,489 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,845,523. The stock has a market cap of $70.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week high of $52.42. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $44.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.14.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) 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 return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 6.97%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FCX. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 41.2% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,680 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 490 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 10,244 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $382,000 after buying an additional 597 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 47.7% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 250,570 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $9,344,000 after buying an additional 80,898 shares in the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 279,168 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $10,410,000 after purchasing an additional 12,414 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Solutions LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 133.2% during the 3rd quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 154,649 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $5,767,000 after purchasing an additional 88,344 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.