Panagora Asset Management Inc. Buys 810,537 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 39.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,870,856 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 810,537 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $145,811,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,619,611,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572,769 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,880,757 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,244,504,000 after purchasing an additional 622,343 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,873,136 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,193,327,000 after buying an additional 395,226 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after buying an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 190.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,494,793 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,431,326,000 after buying an additional 23,950,557 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $66.00 price objective (down from $70.00) on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $76.00 to $73.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays started coverage on Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $77.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $66.86.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of FCX stock opened at $68.28 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.18. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.15 and a 52 week high of $72.09. The stock has a market cap of $98.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.32, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 2.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.10. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 10.34%.The firm had revenue of $6.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.24 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.96%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.