Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.60%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.39 EPS.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE FCX traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $48.23. 1,353,106 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,050,961. The stock has a market cap of $69.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.68, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.90. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.87. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $55.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.55%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.92.

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.