Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC Decreases Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 811,301 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 12,557 shares during the quarter. Freeport-McMoRan makes up 2.8% of Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Villere ST Denis J & Co. LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $30,894,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 27.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 540,046 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $20,565,000 after buying an additional 115,552 shares during the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 21,819 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $831,000 after buying an additional 2,849 shares during the last quarter. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA now owns 93,247 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,551,000 after buying an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 175,287 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,675,000 after buying an additional 13,503 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of FCX stock opened at $39.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm has a market cap of $56.69 billion, a PE ratio of 30.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a 50-day moving average of $38.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.87. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.89 and a 1-year high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. On average, analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $48.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.46.

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.