Prosperity Consulting Group LLC Raises Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Prosperity Consulting Group LLC raised its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 26.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,151 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,903 shares during the quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $430,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 3,084.6% during the 1st quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 53,502 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,516,000 after purchasing an additional 51,822 shares during the period. Worth Financial Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 31.1% during the first quarter. Worth Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 22,872 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,075,000 after buying an additional 5,426 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the first quarter worth $1,416,000. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 16.8% in the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 73,668 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $3,464,000 after acquiring an additional 10,612 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lodestone Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Lodestone Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,543 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $261,000 after purchasing an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. HSBC raised their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.93.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total value of $4,162,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,430,735.31. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Freeport-McMoRan news, CAO Stephen T. Higgins sold 80,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.03, for a total transaction of $4,162,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 104,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,430,735.31. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Douglas N. Currault II sold 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.99, for a total transaction of $2,859,450.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 164,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,529,843.33. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 445,667 shares of company stock worth $22,755,070. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX stock traded up $0.87 during trading on Friday, reaching $51.52. The stock had a trading volume of 8,300,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,815,288. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $50.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.41. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.83 and a 52 week high of $55.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $74.01 billion, a PE ratio of 45.60, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.92.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 6.97%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Monday, July 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is 26.55%.

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.