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Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Freeport-McMoRan (FCX - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $39.40, moving -1.23% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.47%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.72%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 5.08%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the mining company had gained 11.99% over the past month. This has outpaced the Basic Materials sector's gain of 3.51% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.36% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Freeport-McMoRan as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Freeport-McMoRan is projected to report earnings of $0.38 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 34.48%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6 billion, up 10.7% from the year-ago period.

FCX's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.79 per share and revenue of $23.98 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -26.64% and +5.26%, respectively.

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. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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, 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 12.72% lower. Freeport-McMoRan is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note Freeport-McMoRan's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 22.24. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.38.

The Mining - Non Ferrous industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 66, which puts it in the top 27% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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