Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Lowers Stock Position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lessened its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,000 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $2,796,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FCX. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.3% during 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 buying an additional 440,580 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at about $641,000. Holocene Advisors LP grew its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 23.6% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,222,580 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $110,951,000 after purchasing an additional 424,718 shares during the period. Community Bank N.A. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 22.0% in the third quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 25,879 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,292,000 after buying an additional 4,659 shares during the period. Finally, Arosa Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,496,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $54.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.00.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan stock opened at $43.64 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $46.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.80. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1 year low of $36.04 and a 1 year high of $55.24. The stock has a market cap of $62.71 billion, a PE ratio of 31.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 17.44 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.30.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The natural resource company reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $6.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 7.40%. Freeport-McMoRan’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Freeport-McMoRan Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 15th. Freeport-McMoRan’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.90%.

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.