Should You Buy Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX)?

A whopping number of 13F filings filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been processed by Insider Monkey so that individual investors can look at the overall hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks included in their watchlists. These freshly-submitted public filings disclose money managers’ equity positions as of the end of the three-month period ended September 30. So let’s proceed with the discussion of the hedge fund sentiment on Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX).

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) has experienced an increase in hedge fund sentiment of late. Our calculations also showed that FCX isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

At the moment, there are dozens of gauges stock traders employed to value stocks. A duo of the less known gauges are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Our experts have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite money managers can outperform the broader indices by a significant margin (see the details here).

Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds

We’re going to take a look at the latest hedge fund action regarding Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX).

What have hedge funds been doing with Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX)?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2018, a total of 47 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 12% from one quarter earlier. By comparison, 36 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in FCX heading into this year. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

FCX_dec2018

The largest stake in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) was held by Icahn Capital LP, which reported holding $698.2 million worth of stock at the end of September. It was followed by Fisher Asset Management with a $449 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included AQR Capital Management, Adage Capital Management, and Iridian Asset Management.

Now, specific money managers have jumped into Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) headfirst. Castle Hook Partners, managed by Josh Donfeld and David Rogers, initiated the most valuable position in Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX). Castle Hook Partners had $92.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Todd J. Kantor’s Encompass Capital Advisors also made a $15.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Kevin Michael Ulrich and Anthony Davis’s Anchorage Advisors, David Halpert’s Prince Street Capital Management, and Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX). We will take a look at Global Payments Inc (NYSE:GPN), FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT), Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (NASDAQ:CTRP), and International Paper Company (NYSE:IP). This group of stocks’ market caps match FCX’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
GPN 26 443182 4
FLT 37 1371542 4
CTRP 19 1160299 -12
IP 28 327944 7
Average 27.5 826 0.75

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 27.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $826 million. That figure was $2,251 million in FCX’s case. FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (NASDAQ:CTRP) is the least popular one with only 19 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.