Legal & General Group Plc Trims Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,461,550 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 171,139 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.52% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $323,458,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of FCX. Beacon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 876 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. Dagco Inc. acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. MTM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Hilltop National Bank purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 74.9% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 1,002 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 429 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FCX. Clarkson Capital upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday. CICC Research lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $51.60 to $42.30 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $46.73.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE FCX opened at $39.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 2.45. The firm has a market cap of $57.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.04, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.64. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.87. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $27.66 and a one year high of $49.12.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $6.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.74 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.13%.

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.