Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Boosts Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 111,194 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,082 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $4,734,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Webster Bank N. A. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6,469.2% during the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 854 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 841 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCX has been the topic of several recent research reports. HSBC upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $53.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Argus boosted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 1.1 %

Freeport-McMoRan stock traded up $0.55 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $51.00. 10,950,625 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,304,421. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a current ratio of 2.35. The company has a market cap of $73.15 billion, a PE ratio of 45.13, a P/E/G ratio of 8.19 and a beta of 2.02. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $45.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.91. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $52.52.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The company’s revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

Insider Transactions at Freeport-McMoRan

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,255,381.95. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, VP Douglas N. Currault II sold 55,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.99, for a total transaction of $2,859,450.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 164,067 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,529,843.33. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 42,767 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 104,377 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,255,381.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 310,896 shares of company stock valued at $15,811,399. Corporate insiders own 0.78% of the company’s stock.

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.