State of Michigan Retirement System Trims Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

State of Michigan Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 390,033 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,300 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $14,852,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in FCX. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 56,066 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,135,000 after buying an additional 5,779 shares in the last quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,206 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $541,000 after acquiring an additional 717 shares during the period. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 7,227 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $275,000 after acquiring an additional 677 shares in the last quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 73,862 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,813,000 after purchasing an additional 4,800 shares during the period. Finally, LGT Group Foundation boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 211,355 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $8,048,000 after purchasing an additional 22,169 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $34.93 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $38.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.54. 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 twelve month low of $34.26 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $50.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.85.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Company 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.