Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Stock Holdings Lifted by Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 339.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 83,670 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 64,651 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $3,186,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of FCX. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,684,393 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $84,085,000 after buying an additional 66,699 shares during the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 21,951 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,096,000 after purchasing an additional 2,688 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 13,414 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $670,000 after purchasing an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at about $216,000. Finally, Summit Global Investments lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 1,559.3% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 76,493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,819,000 after purchasing an additional 71,883 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $36.97 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.42. 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 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.26 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released 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 return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

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.