Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Earnings: Consecutive Profit Quarter Streak Stays Intact

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) reported its results for the third quarter. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold is an international company that mines copper, gold and molybdenum.

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Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Net income for the mining (non ferr) fell to $824 million (86 cents per share) vs. $1.1 billion ($1.10 per share) a year earlier. This is a decline of 25.1% from the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Fell 15% to $4.42 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. fell short of the mean analyst estimate of 88 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $4.48 billion.

Quoting Management: James R. Moffett, Chairman of the Board, and Richard C. Adkerson, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our global team continues to focus on execution of our plans to achieve efficient and safe production, effective cost management, investment in financially attractive projects and identification of additional reserves and resources. Our third quarter results reflect production growth in North America and Africa, offset by anticipated lower ore grades in Indonesia. As we look forward, we are on track to achieve meaningful increases in our production of copper as we return to higher grade ores at Grasberg and through the execution of brownfield expansions in the Americas and Africa, expected to add one billion pounds of copper annually over the next three years. We are positive about the long-term fundamentals of the metals we produce, our geographically diverse portfolio of large-scale operations with long-lived reserves and mineral resources and the strong track record of our team to execute our plans.”

Key Stats:

Revenue has fallen for the last four quarters. Revenue declined 23% to $4.47 billion in the second quarter. The figure fell 19.3% in the first quarter from the year earlier and dropped 25.7% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year from the year-ago quarter.

The company has now fallen short of estimates in the last two quarters. In the second quarter, it missed expectations by one cent with net income of 74 cents versus a mean estimate of net income of 75 cents per share.

Looking Forward: Over the past sixty days, the outlook for the company’s performance next quarter has become increasingly unfavorable. The average estimate for the fourth quarter is 95 cents per share, a drop from $1.12. The average estimate for the fiscal year is now $3.54 per share, down from $4.06 sixty days ago.

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(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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