Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC Acquires New Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Benchmark Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 16,400 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $625,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 3.2% during the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 584,251 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $29,166,000 after buying an additional 18,041 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1,302.4% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,342 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $117,000 after acquiring an additional 2,175 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 130,504 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $6,515,000 after acquiring an additional 16,166 shares during the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 13,130 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $655,000 after acquiring an additional 1,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 1,392,918 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $69,534,000 after acquiring an additional 25,514 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FCX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $40.00 to $48.00 in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.61.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FCX opened at $29.14 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $28.49 and a one year high of $55.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.73.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.26%.

Freeport-McMoRan 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.