Argyle Capital Management Inc. Cuts Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Argyle Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 33.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,700 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 9,700 shares during the period. Argyle Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Webster Bank N. A. increased its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6,469.2% in the 4th quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 854 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 841 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 80.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC increased their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Bank of America raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of FCX stock traded up $1.10 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $50.50. The stock had a trading volume of 19,037,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,097,275. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week high of $52.42. The firm has a market cap of $72.44 billion, a PE ratio of 44.69, a PEG ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.40.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.05. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 7.17%. The company had revenue of $6.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.52 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 17.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.55%.

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.