Csenge Advisory Group Raises Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

Csenge Advisory Group increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 31.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,838 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,344 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,694,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 130,332,957 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $6,619,611,000 after acquiring an additional 1,572,769 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 63,880,757 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,244,504,000 after acquiring an additional 622,343 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 62,873,136 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $3,193,327,000 after acquiring an additional 395,226 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 20.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 42,345,502 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,489,069,000 after purchasing an additional 7,044,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 31.2% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 37,353,852 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,897,202,000 after purchasing an additional 8,891,743 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Ellie L. Mikes sold 4,773 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $334,110.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 36,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,520,000. This trade represents a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 14,277 shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total value of $992,251.50. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,795,951. This represents a 20.72% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,600 shares of company stock worth $1,802,012. 0.73% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on FCX. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $67.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $76.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.50 to $58.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.27.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 4.1%

NYSE FCX opened at $69.02 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $99.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.37. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52-week low of $35.15 and a 52-week high of $72.28. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $64.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 10.63% and a net margin of 11.39%.Freeport-McMoRan’s quarterly revenue was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.79 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is currently 14.78%.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

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.