The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Basic Materials company by 0.35% to 113.46 million shares with purchase of 0.4 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.91% valued currently at $4.53 billion. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.89 million to 63.24 million shares. And BlackRock Fund Advisors has lifted its position by 0.50% or 0.31 million shares – to 62.22 million shares.
With over 6.68 million Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $40.19 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $268.54 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 11.34% and its price on 09/18/23 lost nearly -0.45%. Currently, there are 1.43B common shares owned by the public and among those 1.43B shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 22 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for FCX have a consensus price objective of $46.08. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $57.00 and a low of $29.00. The average price target is 13.22% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -38.59% over that period. But an upside of 29.49% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $46.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 51 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 36 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 2,406,894 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 15 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,259,742 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and American Funds Growth Fund of Ame. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 44.71 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.78 billion. The company sold 3656.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.12% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.18 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 34.51 million shares valued at over $1.38 billion and representing 2.41% of the shares outstanding. American Funds Growth Fund of Ame now owns shares totaling to 1.26% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) opened at $40.41, up $0.04 from a prior closing price of $40.37. However, the script later moved the day high at 40.43, down -0.45%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.20% and 0.94% over the past three months. FCX shares are trading 6.33% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 36.03% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $25.83 and touched a high of $46.56 over the same period. FCX has an average intraday trading volume of 10.59 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 1.18%, -1.64%, and 0.84% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) shares accounts for 79.30% of the company’s 1.43B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 34.40%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 44.56% and 1.70% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $58.06B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 2.06. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 27.62, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.46. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.83% over the week and 2.11% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) will achieve an EPS of $0.37 for the current quarter, $0.47 for the next quarter and $2.13 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.31 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.51. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.26 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -17.80%, and 26.77% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 22 brokerage firm advisors rate Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.30. Specifically, 10 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 10 of the 22 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the FCX, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Bernstein stated their Mkt Perform rating for the stock in a research note on June 29, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $41.
