Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

FCX has been the subject of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $47.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $52.04.

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Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 1.0 %

Freeport-McMoRan stock traded down $0.39 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $40.31. The stock had a trading volume of 22,330,871 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,855,654. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.93 billion, a PE ratio of 31.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $33.98 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $38.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 9.7% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 164,640 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $8,219,000 after purchasing an additional 14,501 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan during the 3rd quarter valued at $754,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the fourth quarter worth $3,388,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,684,393 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $84,085,000 after acquiring an additional 66,699 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 311,555 shares of the natural resource company's stock worth $11,864,000 after acquiring an additional 18,852 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.