Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) closed the most recent trading day at $38.24, moving -1.21% from the previous trading session. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.09%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.04%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.1%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the mining company had lost 11.42% over the past month. This has lagged the Basic Materials sector's loss of 7.73% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.29% in that time.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Freeport-McMoRan in its upcoming release. On that day, Freeport-McMoRan is projected to report earnings of $0.38 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 40.74%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $6.02 billion, reflecting a 1.91% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $1.49 per share and a revenue of $25.86 billion, indicating changes of -3.25% and +13.13%, respectively, from the former year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Freeport-McMoRan should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the company's business performance and profit potential.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 1.22% decrease. Freeport-McMoRan presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In the context of valuation, Freeport-McMoRan is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 26. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.42.

Also, we should mention that FCX has a PEG ratio of 2.71. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The average PEG ratio for the Mining – Non Ferrous industry stood at 0.93 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Mining – Non Ferrous industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 136, this industry ranks in the bottom 46% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.

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