Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) Stock Rating Lowered by Scotiabank

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) was downgraded by analysts at Scotiabank from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note issued on Monday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $52.00 target price on the natural resource company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 3.22% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also commented on FCX. UBS Group raised shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 10th. BNP Paribas raised Freeport-McMoRan to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.93.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of FCX opened at $50.38 on Monday. Freeport-McMoRan has a 52-week low of $32.83 and a 52-week high of $55.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.61. The company has a market capitalization of $72.37 billion, a PE ratio of 44.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.89.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 7.60%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.61 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Freeport-McMoRan

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of FCX. First Financial Bank Trust Division grew its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. First Financial Bank Trust Division now owns 48,240 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,408,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,143,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 20.1% during the second quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,286 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $160,000 after buying an additional 551 shares during the period. Finally, Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Freeport-McMoRan in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,696,000. Hedge funds and other 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.