SpiderRock Advisors LLC Invests $1.52 Million in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

SpiderRock Advisors LLC bought a new position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 30,531 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,524,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Matrix Trust Co purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Spectrum Wealth Counsel LLC purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 1,170.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 521 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 480 shares during the period. Lynx Investment Advisory purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Freeport-McMoRan during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on FCX shares. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 4.6 %

FCX opened at $46.36 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $46.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.58. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.83 and a 12 month high of $55.24. The firm has a market cap of $66.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.84, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.90%.

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.