Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX)’s Stock Jumps 8% As Morgan Stanley Analyst Reiterates Positive Outlook For Company: Hedge Funds Disagree

Hedge fund activity in Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX)

When looking at the hedgies followed by Insider Monkey, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the largest position in the stock, as the fund held around 2.44 million shares valued at $46.2 million, accounting for 0.2% of its 13F portfolio. Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group had the second-most valuable position in Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX), with around 2.3 million shares worth close to $43.6 million, comprising less than 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Remaining hedgies that were bullish consisted of Jamie Zimmerman of Litespeed Management, David E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, and Benjamin A. Smith’s Laurion Capital Management.

Since Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has witnessed falling interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there exists a select few fund managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes heading into the second quarter. It’s worth mentioning that John Overdeck and David Siegel‘s Two Sigma Advisors said goodbye to the largest stake of any of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, as it sold around 1.19 million shares, while Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson of Adage Capital Management were right behind this move, as the fund managers said goodbye to the stock by offloading around 1.15 million shares during the first quarter. These moves are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 18 funds heading into the second quarter.

Hedge funds were bearish on the stock, as many hedge fund managers opted to either walk out of the stock or weaken their position in the stock during the first three months of this year. Coinciding with the hedge fund managers’ bearish sentiment, the stock has lost more than 50% of its value so far in 2015. Despite the fact that Morgan Stanley has expressed a positive outlook for the company (which it was doing even before the collapse, so it has a lot of ground to make up), considering the stock’s performance and bearish hedge fund sentiment we don’t recommend buying the stock at this time.

Disclosure: None