Howard Capital Management Inc. Has $365,000 Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Howard Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 9,594 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $365,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 164,640 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $8,219,000 after buying an additional 14,501 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 137.5% in the third quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 147,735 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $7,375,000 after purchasing an additional 85,542 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter worth about $754,000. Summit Global Investments boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1,559.3% during 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 period. Finally, AIA Group Ltd grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.2% in the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 92,224 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $4,604,000 after buying an additional 12,887 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on FCX. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $48.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Argus downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.46.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $37.11 on Tuesday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.89 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $38.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.85.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. As a group, analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Company Profile

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.