Freeport McMoRan Post-Earnings: Why Good Enough May Finally Be Good Enough

Summary

On July 23, Freeport-McMoRan NYSE: FCX delivered an earnings report shaped by two forces that will define how investors read the quarter. Copper and gold prices sat at historically elevated levels, lifting realizations across the board. The report also showed the company continues to move toward full production at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia. The mine was closed in 2025 following a mining accident that locked up a significant portion of the company’s production.Get Freeport-McMoRan alerts:Sign Up Freeport-McMoRan TodayFCXFreeport-McMoRan$61.64 -1.86 (-2.93%) As of 10:24 AM Eastern This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.52-Week Range$35.15▼$72.28Dividend Yield0.49%P/E Ratio32.88Price Target$69.04 However, FCX was down after the report. This could be a “buy the rumor, sell the news” situation. The stock climbed approximately 15% from July 17 through the market's close on July 22. That suggests a lot of good news was priced into the report, which, by the numbers, was good but maybe not enough to justify FCX at a 52-week high in the short term. But in the long term, there are two key factors to consider in analyzing Freeport-McMoRan's earnings. Freeport Earnings Get a Boost From Higher Copper and Gold PricesThe headline numbers for the second quarter of 2026 show why investors were pushing FCX higher ahead of earnings. Freeport-McMoRan posted second-quarter net income of $984 million, or 68 cents per share, with adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 74 cents after backing out one-time charges tied to the Grasberg incident. Revenue totaled $7 billion, and the company generated $2 billion in operating cash flow for the quarter. The real story was pricing: The company realized an average of $6.17 per pound for copper in the quarter, up roughly 36% from $4.54 a year ago. Gold realizations jumped to $4,520 per ounce from $3,291, a year-over-year (YOY) gain of roughly 37%. Molybdenum, often an afterthought in Freeport's story, also strengthened me...