Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,910 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. abrdn plc grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 83.7% during the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 664,672 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $28,295,000 after purchasing an additional 302,762 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 24,647 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,049,000 after acquiring an additional 1,817 shares during the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 10,538 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $449,000 after acquiring an additional 2,447 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 233,855 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $9,955,000 after purchasing an additional 40,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investors Asset Management of Georgia Inc. GA ADV lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Investors Asset Management of Georgia Inc. GA ADV now owns 19,714 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $839,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on FCX. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Bernstein Bank upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $52.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a report on Monday, January 8th. HSBC upped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.15.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 1.9 %

FCX stock opened at $48.00 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $44.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.80, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 2.04. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $32.83 and a one year high of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 8.09%. The firm had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.62%.

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.