Argus Raises Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Price Target to $54.00

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) had its price objective lifted by Argus from $44.00 to $54.00 in a report published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the natural resource company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and upped their target price for the stock from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. HSBC upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $59.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $50.50 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $72.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.69, a P/E/G ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 2.04. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1 year low of $32.83 and a 1 year high of $52.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.38.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 6.97%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% in the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% in the first quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 794 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 17,417 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $819,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.3% in the first quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 18,489 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $869,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hartford Financial Management Inc. lifted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.5% in the first quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 16,302 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $767,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.