Freeport-McMoRan

Can Icahn Save Freeport McMoRan?

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• published: 08 Oct 2015
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Zacks Stock Strategists, Tracey Ryniec and David Bartosiak, discuss the outlook for Freeport McMoRan (FCX) after its shares have plunged to multi-year lows. The company recently announced it was looking to sell its energy business, which it only just acquired in 2012 for about $9 billion. Getting back into energy meant a reunion of Freeport with its old energy business, McMoRan Exploration, which was spun-off in 1994. It also bought onshore and Gulf of Mexico driller Plains at that time. But with crude prices at multi-year lows, and some of its energy assets in expensive deep water drilling locations, the energy business has become a drag. Freeport says it wants to focus on its core mining business now. Freeport cut its dividend by 84% earlier this year, although even with the shares down sharply, it is still yielding about 1.9%. Activist investor Carl Icahn has taken an 8.8% stake in the company. Two of his associates were recently awarded seats on the Freeport board of directors which has been cut from 16 seats to 9 independent seats and 2 executive directors. Can Icahn turn the company around and return value to shareholders? Freeport McMoRan: http://www.zacks.com/stock/quote/FCX?cid=CS-YOUTUBE-FT-VID Follow us on StockTwits: http://stocktwits.com/ZacksResearch Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZacksResearch Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch