Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $49.50 to $62.00 in a report on Friday, June 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. UBS Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $54.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $53.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.79.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of FCX opened at $45.14 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $43.82 and a 200-day moving average of $47.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The company has a market capitalization of $64.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.89. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.07. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.60%. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FCX. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 45.0% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 27,703 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,179,000 after acquiring an additional 8,602 shares in the last quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 12,456 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $530,000 after buying an additional 2,776 shares during the last quarter. Sachetta LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 195,941 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,341,000 after buying an additional 7,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $527,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.