Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) closed the most recent trading day at $34.03, moving +0.62% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 2.45% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.15%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.18%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the mining company had lost 11.81% over the past month. This has lagged the Basic Materials sector's loss of 9.64% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.71% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Freeport-McMoRan as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Freeport-McMoRan to post earnings of $0.98 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 27.27%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.68 billion, up 16.24% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.92 per share and revenue of $26.62 billion. These totals would mark changes of +25.24% and +16.54%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Freeport-McMoRan. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.21% higher within the past month. Freeport-McMoRan is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, Freeport-McMoRan is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 8.62. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 7.21.

We can also see that FCX currently has a PEG ratio of 0.3. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Mining - Non Ferrous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.96 as of yesterday's close.

The Mining - Non Ferrous industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 49, which puts it in the top 20% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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