Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) PT Raised to $52.50 at Bernstein Bank

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its target price increased by Bernstein Bank from $52.00 to $52.50 in a research note released on Tuesday morning. They currently have an overweight rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also commented on FCX. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $59.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $50.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.35. Freeport-McMoRan has a twelve month low of $32.83 and a twelve month high of $52.42. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $44.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.26. The firm has a market cap of $72.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.67, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 2.04.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The business’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 305,912 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 59,752,726 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,543,676,000 after purchasing an additional 419,603 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 55,710,695 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,371,604,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030,451 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 7.9% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,157,118 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $994,808,000 after purchasing an additional 1,551,828 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,756,034 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $662,123,000 after purchasing an additional 709,114 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.