Guardian Partners Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Guardian Partners Inc. lessened its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 65.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,374 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 45,000 shares during the quarter. Guardian Partners Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $914,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FCX. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the third quarter worth $25,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,962.9% in the 3rd quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 722 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Proffitt & Goodson Inc. grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 39.8% during the 3rd quarter. Proffitt & Goodson Inc. now owns 977 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FCX shares. Argus upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. CICC Research upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $50.40 to $64.40 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.59.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, Chairman Richard C. Adkerson sold 248,031 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.80, for a total transaction of $15,576,346.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 3,509,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $220,372,673.20. This trade represents a 6.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Maree E. Robertson sold 48,500 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.55, for a total transaction of $2,985,175.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 79,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,917,475.70. The trade was a 37.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 603,140 shares of company stock worth $37,660,139 in the last quarter. 0.75% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock opened at $59.29 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $60.80 and a 200 day moving average of $49.34. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.66 and a 1 year high of $69.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $85.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.41.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.19. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 8.50%.The business had revenue of $5.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.42 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, January 15th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 19.87%.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a U.S.-based natural resources company primarily engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of copper, gold and molybdenum. Its operations encompass large-scale open-pit and underground mining as well as associated concentrator and milling facilities. The company produces copper in the form of concentrates and cathodes, and also recovers gold and molybdenum as co-products; its business model includes exploration, development, mining, beneficiation and the sale of bulk commodities to smelters and industrial customers.

Freeport-McMoRan conducts operations and development activities across multiple geographies, with substantial assets in the Americas and Indonesia.