JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $51.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its price objective reduced by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $52.00 to $51.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a sector outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, HSBC raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 2.2 %

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $50.48 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.26. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week high of $52.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.67, a PEG ratio of 8.00 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tompkins Financial Corp increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% during the first quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% during the first quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 794 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 17,417 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $819,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the period. Archford Capital Strategies LLC boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% during the first quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 18,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $869,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Finally, Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% in the first quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 16,302 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $767,000 after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.