Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Sells 10,799 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. reduced its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 195,701 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 10,799 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $8,331,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FCX. Fairfield Bush & CO. purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. KB Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Retirement Group LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 97.1% in the second quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 670 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on FCX. Bank of America upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.54.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $50.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.42. The company has a market cap of $71.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 2.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $43.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.82. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The natural resource company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.85 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 8.09% and a return on equity of 8.41%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 23.62%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.