State Street Corp Grows Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. $FCX

State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 66,485,424 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,300,416 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned about 4.63% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $4,181,268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. NBH Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Steph & Co. boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 43.7% during the first quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 493 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, SHP Wealth Management purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $71.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.29.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of FCX traded up $1.86 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $74.02. The stock had a trading volume of 4,165,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,625,920. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $35.15 and a 1 year high of $80.24. The firm has a market cap of $106.30 billion, a PE ratio of 36.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $68.87 and its 200 day moving average is $64.85.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $7.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.62 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 2.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lydia Kennard sold 3,798 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.11, for a total value of $300,459.78. Following the sale, the director directly owned 122,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,706,955.22. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ellie Mikes sold 4,773 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $334,110.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 36,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,520,000. This represents a 11.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 110,398 shares of company stock worth $8,387,271. Corporate insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is a global mining company focused primarily on the exploration, development and production of copper, gold and molybdenum. Copper is its principal product and is used in electrical wiring, construction, transportation, industrial equipment and renewable-energy technologies. The company also produces gold as a byproduct of its copper operations and molybdenum, an alloying metal used in steelmaking and other industrial applications.

Freeport-McMoRan operates major mining and processing assets in North America, South America and Indonesia.