Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Has $306,000 Holdings in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) by 36.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 8,037 shares of the natural resource company’s stock after buying an additional 2,128 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Freeport-McMoRan were worth $306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC grew its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 4,767.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC now owns 11,933,126 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $595,702,000 after buying an additional 11,687,982 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Freeport-McMoRan by 142.5% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 2,515,103 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Freeport-McMoRan by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,310,294 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $1,348,522,000 after purchasing an additional 2,366,187 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 423.5% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,788,111 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $139,183,000 after purchasing an additional 2,255,529 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 59,409,395 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $2,965,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares during the last quarter. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Freeport-McMoRan Stock Performance

FCX opened at $36.97 on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.26 and a 1-year high of $55.24. The company has a market cap of $53.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.66, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.87. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $38.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.42. The company has a current ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Freeport-McMoRan from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Argus lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets cut 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price target on Freeport-McMoRan from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.75.

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.