Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Grows Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 34.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 28,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,100 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,060,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FCX. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.4% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 285,491 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $10,809,000 after acquiring an additional 24,532 shares during the period. Calamos Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 36.0% in the first quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,581 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $363,000 after purchasing an additional 2,534 shares during the last quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 678,332 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $25,682,000 after purchasing an additional 5,025 shares during the period. Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates LLC now owns 230,701 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $9,390,000 after buying an additional 5,052 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,678,407 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $63,544,000 after buying an additional 10,163 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Freeport-McMoRan

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 8,584 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.02, for a total value of $343,531.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 48,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,934,286.66. This represents a 15.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Scotiabank raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $43.00 to $48.00 in a report on Monday, June 16th. Wolfe Research raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $39.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.27.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $45.86 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $40.01 and a 200 day moving average of $38.26. The company has a market cap of $65.90 billion, a PE ratio of 37.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a current ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.66 and a 12-month high of $52.61.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.11% and a return on equity of 7.03%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.79%.

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.