Freeport-McMoRan Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 83,681 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 64% compared to the average daily volume of 51,110 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Freeport-McMoRan

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Freeport-McMoRan by 2.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,392,494 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 1.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 28,891,058 shares of the natural resource company’s stock valued at $1,436,455,000 after purchasing an additional 529,099 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,348,522,000 after buying an additional 2,366,187 shares in the last quarter. Mountaineer Partners Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 worth $595,702,000 after purchasing an additional 11,687,982 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Freeport-McMoRan by 0.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,343,109 shares of the natural resource company’s stock worth $502,675,000 after buying an additional 56,499 shares during the period. 80.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FCX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 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. Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded 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. StockNews.com lowered Freeport-McMoRan from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Freeport-McMoRan from $52.00 to $48.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.42.

Freeport-McMoRan Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE:FCX opened at $38.49 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $40.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $44.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $55.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.87. Freeport-McMoRan has a 12 month low of $36.26 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The natural resource company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.05). Freeport-McMoRan had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 7.81%. Equities analysts predict that Freeport-McMoRan will post 1.43 EPS for the current year.

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.