Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.15 Per Share

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, December 18th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.15 per share by the natural resource company on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. This is a boost from Freeport-McMoRan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

Freeport-McMoRan has increased its dividend by an average of 81.7% annually over the last three years. Freeport-McMoRan has a payout ratio of 14.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Freeport-McMoRan to earn $2.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.6%.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $38.71 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $44.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $55.62 billion, a PE ratio of 28.26, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.86. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12 month low of $36.26 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.49 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on FCX shares. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.92.

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.