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

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 423.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,255,529 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $139,183,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,170.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 521 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Matrix Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Lynx Investment Advisory purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on FCX shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock traded down $2.22 on Friday, hitting $46.36. The company had a trading volume of 16,197,353 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,333,747. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $46.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company has a market cap of $66.61 billion, a PE ratio of 33.84, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.91. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.83 and a 52 week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The business’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.90%.

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.