Levin Capital Strategies L.P. Acquires New Stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Levin Capital Strategies L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 259,719 shares of the natural resource company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,890,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in FCX. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% during the third quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after acquiring an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 4,279,517 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $162,964,000 after acquiring an additional 2,515,103 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% during the third quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $139,183,000 after buying an additional 2,255,529 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $2,965,717,000 after buying an additional 1,392,494 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FCX shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Argus downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Freeport-McMoRan from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.04.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:FCX opened at $36.92 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $53.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.62, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 2.42. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a one year low of $34.89 and a one year high of $55.24. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.59.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 7.50%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.