Baxter Bros Inc. Sells 3,554 Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Baxter Bros Inc. cut its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 9.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 35,802 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 3,554 shares during the quarter. Baxter Bros Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $1,363,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $4,692,191,000 after purchasing an additional 642,776 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,891,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,436,455,000 after acquiring an additional 529,099 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,348,522,000 after acquiring an additional 2,366,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 21,580,960 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $857,305,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001,531 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

FCX stock opened at $41.66 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.08 and a 200 day moving average of $41.97. 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 company has a market cap of $59.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.30, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.98 and a 1 year high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its 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 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on FCX. Argus cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Dbs Bank raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

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.