Freeport-McMoRan Dips 3% As Quarterly Profit Plunges

(RTTNews) - Shares of mining company Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) are falling about 3% Friday morning after the company's profit in the first quarter more than halved primarily due to lower production.

Profit for the first quarter decreased to $663 million, $0.46 per share from $1.527 billion or $1.04 per share in the same quarter a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were $757 million, $0.52 per share, that beat the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters of $0.46 per share.

Quarterly revenue declined to $5.389 billion from $6.603 billion last year. The consensus estimate was for $5.25 billion.

FCX, currently at $39.99, has traded in the range of $24.80-$46.73 in the last 1 year.