Thornburg Investment Management Inc. Buys 486,461 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Thornburg Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 24.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,441,053 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 486,461 shares during the quarter. Freeport-McMoRan makes up about 1.2% of Thornburg Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position. Thornburg Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.17% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $92,955,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth $3,388,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,692,191,000 after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $351,041,000 after purchasing an additional 6,486,011 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 159,536 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,075,000 after purchasing an additional 8,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PGGM Investments increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 220.3% during the fourth quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 40,467 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,541,000 after buying an additional 27,834 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCX has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Argus cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $52.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Friday, April 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.36.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $38.01 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $36.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.90. The firm has a market cap of $54.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.66 and a 52 week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. The firm’s revenue was down 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.79%.

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.