Schroder Investment Management Group Boosts Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX - Free Report) by 22.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 825,151 shares of the natural resource company's stock after acquiring an additional 149,223 shares during the quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group owned 0.06% of Freeport-McMoRan worth $31,488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter valued at $3,233,000. Atom Investors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter valued at about $439,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the third quarter worth about $2,761,000. Hilltop Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the third quarter worth approximately $641,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.3% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,172,219 shares of the natural resource company's stock valued at $258,193,000 after acquiring an additional 440,580 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FCX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Freeport-McMoRan from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Argus cut Freeport-McMoRan from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $51.61.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Down 13.0 %

FCX traded down $4.37 during trading on Friday, hitting $29.14. 44,396,895 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,529,687. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $28.49 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24. The stock has a market cap of $41.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.71. The business's 50 day moving average is $37.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.50% and a net margin of 7.42%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Freeport-McMoRan Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. Freeport-McMoRan's payout ratio is 23.26%.

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.