Scotiabank Lowers Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) to Sector Perform

Scotiabank cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) from a sector outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research report released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $52.00 target price on the natural resource company's stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on FCX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Monday, June 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas upgraded Freeport-McMoRan to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $52.93.

Freeport-McMoRan Price Performance

Freeport-McMoRan stock traded down $1.42 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $49.92. The stock had a trading volume of 14,958,203 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,387,938. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.40 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.18, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.89. Freeport-McMoRan has a 1-year low of $32.83 and a 1-year high of $55.24. The stock's fifty day moving average is $43.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.57.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.60% and a net margin of 7.83%. Freeport-McMoRan's revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan's dividend payout ratio is presently 26.55%.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tompkins Financial Corp raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 33.8% during the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 791 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 64,053 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $3,012,000 after acquiring an additional 203 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 40,083 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $1,885,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,243 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 38.6% during the 1st quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 794 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.77% of the company's stock.

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.