Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Short Interest Update

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 19,810,000 shares, a decline of 8.5% from the June 30th total of 21,640,000 shares. Currently, 1.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 13,650,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.5 days.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total transaction of $2,153,318.45. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at $5,255,381.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total transaction of $4,162,400.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,430,735.31. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.35, for a total value of $2,153,318.45. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,255,381.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 177,538 shares of company stock worth $9,096,990. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FCX. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Lynx Investment Advisory purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 422.2% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 658 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. RFP Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 261.3% in the second quarter. RFP Financial Group LLC now owns 589 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX stock traded down $1.78 on Thursday, reaching $43.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,257,871 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,659,217. The company has a market capitalization of $62.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.61, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.92. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12-month low of $32.83 and a 12-month high of $55.24. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. The company’s revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

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.