Westside Investment Management Inc. Increases Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Westside Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 33.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 7,867 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,950 shares during the quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $373,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $139,183,000 after acquiring an additional 2,255,529 shares in the last quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 34.9% in the second quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 5,943,074 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $288,833,000 after purchasing an additional 1,538,560 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 5,249.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,341,335 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $66,959,000 after buying an additional 1,316,261 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of FCX opened at $43.01 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $61.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.39, a P/E/G ratio of 16.60 and a beta of 1.86. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a twelve month low of $36.26 and a twelve month high of $55.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 21.90%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FCX shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.92.

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.