UPDATE: BMO Capital Markets Downgrades Freeport-McMoRan

BMO Capital Markets published a report on Freeport-McMoRan

and downgraded the company from Outperform to Market Perform with a lowered price target, from $50 to $30. In the report, BMO Capital wrote, "The move comes as both surprising and disappointing to the market and resulted in a ~15% drop in the share price yesterday. FCX's diversification into oil and gas arguably removes a key investment draw of the company in its copper exposure. After the deal, pro-forma net debt is expected to increase to US$16B, from net cash of US$0.2B in Q3/12, reducing or eliminating the likelihood of any increase in cash returns to shareholders. The purchase suggests management sees a lack of attractive growth opportunities within the copper sector. Most perturbing, in our view, is the lack of opportunity for shareholders to vote on a transaction that is two-thirds the market cap of FCX, especially given management's financial interest in one of the targets." Freeport-McMoRan closed Wednesday at $32.17.