Why Are These Stocks Deep In Red on Friday?

Freeport-McMoRan Falls on Congo Tax Speculation

Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX)’s stock is down by almost 4% after Congo’s mines minister said that he thinks the company is concealing the true value of its sale of the Tenke copper project in Congo. Freeport previously agreed to sell its majority stake in the mine to a Chinese company for $2.65 billion in cash. The minister thinks that Freeport should pay more taxes on the deal. Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP reported ownership of 104 million shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX) in its 13F filing for the fourth quarter.

Secondary Offering Sinks Eagle Point 

Eagle Point Credit Company Inc (NYSE:ECC) is trading 14% lower after the company announced that it had priced its 1.25 million-share secondary offering at $17.65 per share. The underwriters of the offering have an option to buy an additional 187,500 shares. The company plans to use the net proceeds of $20.9 million to acquire investments and for general working capital purposes.

Intrexon Down on Bearish Article

Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) shares are 2% in the red after TheStreet’s Adam Feuerstein became the latest pundit to question the company’s technology. In his article, Feuerstein writes”

“I don’t trust [CEO] R.J. Kirk because very few of the claims he makes about any of Intrexon’s synthetic biology business ventures are backed with independently verifiable information. It’s all promise, no proof. Intrexon is very much like Theranos. I’m not the first person to make this comparison, but it is fitting.”

A bearish writer on Seeking Alpha previously wrote an expose on the company too. Some hedge funds might disagree with the bearish sentiment, however. Of the 786 elite funds we track, 19 funds owned $259.84 million worth of Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON)’s shares, which accounted for 7.40% of the float on December 31, versus 17 funds and $205.51 million respectively a quarter earlier.

Disclosure: none