Scotiabank Cuts Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $48.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its target price decreased by Scotiabank from $52.00 to $48.00 in a research report released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Scotiabank currently has a sector perform rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.96.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

NYSE FCX opened at $39.77 on Monday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1 year low of $36.26 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $42.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $44.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company has a market cap of $57.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.03, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.86.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.39 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. This is an increase from Freeport-McMoRan’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 21.90%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,366,187 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% in the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $139,183,000 after purchasing an additional 2,255,529 shares during the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 34.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 5,943,074 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $288,833,000 after buying an additional 1,538,560 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.