Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Reduces Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE reduced its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 41.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,392 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 7,430 shares during the period. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 642,776 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $1,436,455,000 after purchasing an additional 529,099 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% in the third 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. Amundi increased its stake 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 last quarter. Finally, Mountaineer Partners Management LLC raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FCX. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $52.00 in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Argus downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Dbs Bank upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $38.36 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 company has a market cap of $55.13 billion, a PE ratio of 29.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $38.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.96. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $33.98 and a 1-year high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 23.26%.

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.