Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Wednesday.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. Argus downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded 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 report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.75.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of FCX stock opened at $36.84 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.92 and a 200-day moving average of $42.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12-month low of $33.98 and a 12-month high of $55.24. The firm has a market cap of $52.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.56, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 123,219,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $4,692,191,000 after acquiring an additional 642,776 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,885,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,214,203,000 after acquiring an additional 5,735,171 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 29,579,298 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,122,922,000 after acquiring an additional 688,240 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 29,502,220 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,123,445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,191,926 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.