Savvy Trades and Investments

[researcher59]

Wade: FCX (14.11) is a large cap copper and gold producer .... primarily it's a commodity play on copper prices, so it's tough to predict what they'll earn in 2018. Those analyst estimates for EPS of $1.64 for 2018 look rather optimistic. Copper prices haven fallen significantly since early October, down nearly 10% and are now at $1.96/lb, about 8% higher than the average price for 2017. So unless copper prices get back well over $2, it's doubtful they'll meet estimates.

Also worth noting is that analyst EPS estimates are for EPS of $1.64 for 2018, but then down sharply to $1.17 for 2019 .... I don't know the rationale behind the 30% drop, but evidently they anticipate more copper supply coming to market and driving down prices.

I prefer TGB as a small cap copper play and own a small position, but FCX has been on my watchlist for a long time, though I never bought any shares. I was very tempted early in 2016 when it dropped below $4. At that time they also had significant oil and gas exposure.

Another interesting copper play was brought to the board by Beigledog, a Canadian miner that trades in the US under symbol CPPMF - I don't own any shares yet, but have it on my watchlist for potential purchase -

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=136318457