Goelzer Investment Management Inc. Lowers Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Goelzer Investment Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 90,612 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,440 shares during the period. Goelzer Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,451,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $162,964,000 after purchasing an additional 2,515,103 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,348,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,366,187 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,255,529 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in 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 worth $2,965,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.9 %

FCX opened at $37.78 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12-month low of $36.26 and a 12-month high of $55.24. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $54.29 billion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $40.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.95.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. As a group, research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FCX. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $48.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.46.

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.