14 Best Basic Materials Stocks To Buy Now

4. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 66

Copper and gold mining company Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) ranks 4th in our list of the best basic materials stocks to buy now.

As of the end of the second quarter of 2023, 66 hedge funds out of the 910 funds tracked by Insider Monkey had stakes in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX).

During Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)’s second quarter earnings call, President of the company Kathleen Quirk talked about the company’s dividend policy, copper prices, and related matters:

“If copper prices sharply to recover, we’re going to be generating a lot of free cash flow. Under the policy, we’re distributing 50%. And if you go back cumulatively to where – when we started it in the second half of 2021, we’ve distributed over 50% between the dividends and the share buybacks. With improved market conditions, that’s going to give us a lot of leverage to free cash flow and give us the ability to consider how we deploy that, whether it be share buybacks, dividends, et cetera. And so we’re following the policy. We’re keeping our debt very low. The cash flow that we’ve generated since the policy started, over 50% has gone to shareholders, but the other 50% is some of it’s still on our balance sheet because we’ve got projects earmarked to fund.”

Read the complete earnings call transcript here.