Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) Short Interest Up 26.5% in April

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 22,880,000 shares, a growth of 26.5% from the March 31st total of 18,090,000 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 14,480,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on FCX shares. Bank of America raised Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $59.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $41.00 to $48.50 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Raymond James raised their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $49.50 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Argus upped their price objective on Freeport-McMoRan from $44.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $50.07.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 4.7 %

NYSE FCX traded down $2.47 on Tuesday, reaching $49.94. The company had a trading volume of 16,744,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,155,595. The firm has a market cap of $71.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.20, a P/E/G ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 2.04. Freeport-McMoRan has a fifty-two week low of $32.83 and a fifty-two week high of $52.52. The business has a 50 day moving average of $44.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.41.

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

Freeport-McMoRan Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. Freeport-McMoRan’s payout ratio is 26.55%.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. CM Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 80.0% in the 3rd quarter. CM Management LLC now owns 36,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,342,000 after acquiring an additional 16,000 shares in the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 345,917 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $14,726,000 after purchasing an additional 20,894 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,508,085 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $279,977,000 after purchasing an additional 102,466 shares in the last quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 59.0% in the 4th quarter. Cadinha & Co. LLC now owns 647,691 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $27,572,000 after buying an additional 240,340 shares during the period. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 57.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,391,230 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $201,039,000 after buying an additional 1,965,987 shares in the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.