National Pension Service Purchases 61,695 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

National Pension Service increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,567,366 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 61,695 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $109,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Webster Bank N. A. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 6,469.2% during the fourth quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 854 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 841 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. HSBC increased their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 2.8 %

Freeport-McMoRan stock traded down $1.43 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $49.96. The stock had a trading volume of 14,150,824 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,289,620. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.20. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.83 and a 52 week high of $52.52. The stock has a market cap of $71.66 billion, a PE ratio of 44.21, a PEG ratio of 8.19 and a beta of 2.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.41.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.52 earnings per share. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, VP Douglas N. Currault II sold 55,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.99, for a total transaction of $2,859,450.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 164,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,529,843.33. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 43,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.08, for a total value of $2,242,412.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,331,577.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Douglas N. Currault II sold 55,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.99, for a total value of $2,859,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 164,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,529,843.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 365,667 shares of company stock valued at $18,592,670 over the last quarter. 0.78% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.