Brokerages Set Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Price Target at $51.46

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $51.46.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on FCX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Argus downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased 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 note on Friday, January 24th.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX opened at $36.97 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $53.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $38.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.75. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $34.89 and a 52-week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $595,702,000 after acquiring an additional 11,687,982 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 237.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,218,518 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $351,041,000 after purchasing an additional 6,486,011 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,214,203,000 after purchasing an additional 5,735,171 shares during the period. Amundi grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $857,305,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,531 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 38.1% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 16,273,162 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $619,682,000 after buying an additional 4,488,210 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

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.