As previously reported, Credit Suisse analyst Curt Woodworth started Freeport McMoRan with a Neutral rating and $12 price target. The analyst is cautious on the stock in the medium-term given his view that consensus EBITDA and free cash flow estimates need to significantly decline owing to unit cost pressures in Indonesia, negative impact from deferred taxes, and copper price weakness. While he expects the new Indonesian mining license to preserve Freeport McMoRan asset level economics, the transition to the underground block cave adds a layer of execution risk that is hard to quantify and material milestones remain.

JPMorgan raised the firm's price target on Freeport-McMoRan to $52 from $43 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares as part of a Q1 earnings preview for the North America copper group. Copper's recent bullish shift has unfolded quicker than expected while coinciding with earlier than anticipated momentum building in global manufacturing PMIs, suggesting pricing may have outpaced fundamentals at this point, the analyst tells investors in a research note.