Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold (NYSE:FCX) had a blowout quarter led by higher copper prices and production, along with better-than-expected sales of molybdenum.
The surge in gold prices hasn't hurt the diversified miner either.
Freeport generated a profit of $1.5 billion, or $1.57 a share, up from $945 million, or $1 a share, last year in the same quarter, adjusted for the stock split. Revenue jumped 31% to $5.71 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had estimated a $1.26profit on $5.3 billion in revenue.
Copper production grew 2.3% while gold production rose 3.8%. Molybdenum output increased about 18 percent.
It sold 926 million pounds of copper, more than the 840 million pounds it had projected.
Prices for gold and copper both rose 26 percent, while molybdenum prices increased 20percent. It also sold 20 million pounds of molybdenum, surpassing the 17 million pounds projected.
Freeport has also been successfully reducing it debt load, which had reached about $17.5 billion after the acquisition of Phelps Dodge. It has been cut to $3.7 billion.
Freeport was trading at $53.82, gaining $2.10, or 4.06 percent, as of 11:52 AM EDT.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Driven Up By Metals
Labels:
Copper Prices,
Copper Production,
Earnings,
Freeport-McMoRan,
Molybdenum
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