Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Short Interest Up 6.1% in December

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 26,090,000 shares, an increase of 6.1% from the December 15th total of 24,580,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.7% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 164,640 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $8,219,000 after buying an additional 14,501 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 137.5% in the third quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 147,735 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $7,375,000 after buying an additional 85,542 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,559.3% in the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 76,493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,819,000 after buying an additional 71,883 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the third quarter worth $754,000. Finally, AIA Group Ltd raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 16.2% in the third quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 92,224 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,604,000 after purchasing an additional 12,887 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:FCX traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $40.27. The stock had a trading volume of 12,044,226 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,896,514. Freeport-McMoRan has a one year low of $36.26 and a one year high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.33. The company has a market cap of $57.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.87. The business’s 50 day moving average is $41.25 and its 200-day moving average is $44.27.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 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 the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.90%.

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.