Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX Shares Sold by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,800 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,500 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,286,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 125,042,285 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,734,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,822,987 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 17.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 37,547,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,421,549,000 after purchasing an additional 5,661,958 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 27,635,497 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,046,280,000 after purchasing an additional 6,054,537 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 13.7% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 21,942,063 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $830,726,000 after purchasing an additional 2,642,810 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,162,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $498,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,815,285 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $47.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.56.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of FCX opened at $43.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.21. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.57. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.66 and a 1-year high of $50.28. The stock has a market cap of $62.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.58.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.45% and a return on equity of 7.37%. The business had revenue of $7.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.73%.

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.