Decoding Freeport-McMoRan's Options Activity: What's the Big Picture?

Deep-pocketed investors have adopted a bearish approach towards Freeport-McMoRan FCX, and it's something market players shouldn't ignore. Our tracking of public options records at Benzinga unveiled this significant move today. The identity of these investors remains unknown, but such a substantial move in FCX usually suggests something big is about to happen.

We gleaned this information from our observations today when Benzinga's options scanner highlighted 15 extraordinary options activities for Freeport-McMoRan. This level of activity is out of the ordinary.

The general mood among these heavyweight investors is divided, with 40% leaning bullish and 60% bearish. Among these notable options, 5 are puts, totaling $303,868, and 10 are calls, amounting to $782,987.

Predicted Price Range

Analyzing the Volume and Open Interest in these contracts, it seems that the big players have been eyeing a price window from $25.0 to $42.0 for Freeport-McMoRan during the past quarter.

Insights into Volume & Open Interest

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Freeport-McMoRan options trades today is 3164.7 with a total volume of 10,320.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Freeport-McMoRan's big money trades within a strike price range of $25.0 to $42.0 over the last 30 days.

Freeport-McMoRan Option Activity Analysis: Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

About Freeport-McMoRan

Freeport-McMoRan Inc is an international mining company. It operates geographically diverse assets with proven and probable mineral reserves of copper, gold, and molybdenum. The company's portfolio of assets includes the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia; and mining operations in North America and South America, including the large-scale Morenci minerals district in Arizona and the Cerro Verde operation in Peru. It derives key revenue from the sale of Copper.

After a thorough review of the options trading surrounding Freeport-McMoRan, we move to examine the company in more detail. This includes an assessment of its current market status and performance.

Current Position of Freeport-McMoRan

• Currently trading with a volume of 8,310,952, the FCX's price is up by 2.26%, now at $35.97.
• RSI readings suggest the stock is currently may be approaching overbought.
• Anticipated earnings release is in 70 days.

What The Experts Say On Freeport-McMoRan

Over the past month, 3 industry analysts have shared their insights on this stock, proposing an average target price of $42.666666666666664.

• An analyst from BMO Capital persists with their Outperform rating on Freeport-McMoRan, maintaining a target price of $45.
• Consistent in their evaluation, an analyst from Morgan Stanley keeps a Equal-Weight rating on Freeport-McMoRan with a target price of $41.
• In a cautious move, an analyst from JP Morgan downgraded its rating to Neutral, setting a price target of $42.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.

If you want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Freeport-McMoRan, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.