Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Barclays

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was upgraded by stock analysts at Barclays to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

FCX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Argus upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $77.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. CICC Research dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $64.40 to $63.40 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.72.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.6%

FCX stock opened at $61.92 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $89.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.94, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12 month low of $35.15 and a 12 month high of $70.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $61.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.35.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.73 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 10.34% and a return on equity of 9.88%. Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.24 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,619,611,000 after buying an additional 1,572,769 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,880,757 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,244,504,000 after buying an additional 622,343 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,873,136 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,193,327,000 after buying an additional 395,226 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 42,345,502 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,489,069,000 after acquiring an additional 7,044,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after acquiring an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.