Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Upgraded to “Buy” at Bank of America

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was upgraded by equities researchers at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $42.00 price target on the natural resource company’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 13.09% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. HSBC reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $43.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $50.00 to $42.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Clarkson Capital reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.74.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $37.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.56. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12-month low of $27.66 and a 12-month high of $51.45. The company has a market capitalization of $53.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.37% and a net margin of 7.45%.The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Momentum Wealth Planning LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,459,000. Caldwell Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Watts Gwilliam & Co. LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,576,000. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 68,967 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,907,000 after purchasing an additional 7,368 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V. M. Manning & CO. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,156,000. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by 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.