Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 22.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,405,085 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 616,974 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.24% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $129,666,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FCX. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Finally, Regal Partners Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 107.8% during the third quarter. Regal Partners Ltd now owns 2,061,170 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $102,894,000 after buying an additional 1,069,073 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Argus downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.46.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $37.11 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.72. The company has a market cap of $53.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $34.89 and a 12-month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. On average, research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.