Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) closed at $24.39, marking a +0.37% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.18%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.15%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.5%.

Heading into today, shares of the mining company had gained 15.55% over the past month, outpacing the Basic Materials sector’s gain of 11.3% and the S&P 500’s gain of 3.22% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from FCX as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.32, up 1500% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.01 billion, up 2.41% from the year-ago period.

FCX’s full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $0.52 per share and revenue of $13.85 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +2500% and -4.89%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for FCX. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 5.05% higher. FCX is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, FCX is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 46.73. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 30.17.

The Mining – Non Ferrous industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 215, which puts it in the bottom 16% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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