By Mackenzie Tatananni
Freeport-McMoRan stock tumbled as investors looked past a first-quarter earnings beat and focused on forecast cuts tied to the long-term operational scars left by a fatal mud rush at the company's Indonesian mine.
Shares slumped 7.8% on Thursday, putting them on pace for the largest single-day percentage drop since September. The benchmark S&P 500 traded flat.
On the surface, the mining giant handily beat analysts' forecasts. Adjusted earnings of 57 cents a share topped the 47 cents analysts had expected, while revenue climbed nearly 9% to $6.23 billion, beating Wall Street's forecast of $5.73 billion.
But while first-quarter sales of Freeport's three primary metals -- copper, gold, and molybdenum -- showed mixed results, copper and gold failed to match the previous year's performance.
The miner recorded molybdenum sales of 24 million pounds, higher than first-quarter 2025 sales of 20 million pounds and above the 22 million pounds Freeport had forecast at the start of the year.
Gold sales of 121,000 ounces were sharply higher than the 60,000 ounces Freeport had projected in January but were below 2025 sales, while copper sales fell to 657 million pounds from 872 million pounds last year.
In both cases, the numbers reflected lower operating rates at Freeport's operations in Indonesia. The company is grappling with the lingering effects of a September incident at its Grasberg mine, when a mud rush killed seven workers and ground operations to a halt.
The tragedy is also expected to have an impact on full-year consolidated sales volumes, Freeport said. The company is targeting 3.1 billion pounds of copper, 650,000 ounces of gold, and 90 million pounds of molybdenum for 2026.
The estimates are lower than earlier guidance for 3.4 billion pounds of copper and 800,000 ounces of gold. Freeport attributed the difference to a projected delay in achieving full ramp-up of operations at the mine, "pending modifications to ore loading infrastructure."
Despite the weaker outlook, President and CEO Kathleen Quirk asserted that Freeport was positioned as "America's Copper Champion," with geographically diverse operations and scale to serve a growing market. "Freeport's global team is focused on restoring operations at Grasberg safely and sustainably," Quirk said.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2026 11:08 ET (15:08 GMT)
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