Great Call on Freeport-McMoRan! What's Next?

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For those not familiar with Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), the company is a global leader in mining copper, gold, and molybdenum. This has been a tough business to invest in over the past few years because commodity prices have been whipsawed by global growth expectations. It now appears that the pessimism that hit Freeport in the depths of the stock market sell-off was way overdone: Today, the stock is more than double its 52-week low.

On the Motley Fool's CAPS service, there are nearly 5,500 members who have weighed in on Freeport's stock and, as the stock's four-star rating suggests, many think that it has more room to run. CAPS member foolsMeThrice, also the current score leader on Freeport, has managed to rack up a pile of points with two correct calls on the company -- one that was ended as the metals market was peaking in summer 2008, and another that was started roughly five months later when Freeport's stock was trading for less than $20 per share.

foolsMeThrice is one of CAPS' All-Stars -- players with a rating of 80 or greater -- and has a stock-picking accuracy of 68% while racking up more than 9,200 points overall. Freeport isn't this player's only great call. Here's a look at a few of the other prescient picks from the past:

Company	Date Picked	Call	Points	CAPS Rating
PotashCorp (NYSE: POT)	June 14, 2007	Outperform	203	****
Petrobras (NYSE: PBR)	April 9, 2007	Outperform	173	*****
DryShips	Dec. 1, 2008	Outperform	130	**

Data from CAPS.

So, what is this investor looking at these days? Here are a few of the most recent calls on CAPS:

Company	Date Picked	Call	CAPS Rating
Hercules Offshore	Feb. 10, 2009	Outperform	****
General Electric (NYSE: GE)	Feb. 4, 2009	Outperform	****
US Bancorp (NYSE: USB)	Feb. 4, 2009	Outperform	***

Data from CAPS.

While not all of these picks may pan out, they could be a good place to start some further research. I decided to take a closer look at US Bancorp.

The banking holdout that wasn't
Last year, as investors contemplated doom for the banking industry, a few big names were seen as best bets to dance their way through the financial crisis. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) found its way onto that list, as did Warren Buffett holdings Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and US Bancorp.

Fast-forward to now, and though US Bancorp (and Wells Fargo, for that matter) isn't an unmitigated disaster like Citigroup, it is suffering from many of the same woes. The stock has toppled 67% from its high for the year, the dividend has been slashed, and investor confidence has been severely shaken.

This is reflected in the stock's rating on CAPS. Though US Bancorp has spent most of its life on CAPS as a four-star pick, it was squarely at a middle-of-the-road three stars more recently. That hasn't kept some of CAPS' highest-rated players away from it. Late last week, CAPS All-Star bluecollarbroker called the stock "undervalued," and HimuraBattousai followed a day later with:

When everyone is afraid, stock prices go down. Even though its now about 100% higher than its lows, USB offers tremendous upside potential. There will be fewer banks around and when its competitors are so busy doing other things like trying to survive or integrate big acquisitions, USB has the capability to strengthen its competitive advantages. USB has already demonstrated that its underwriting is best of breed. With net interest income expanding as spreads expand, USB [should] be able to generate strong future profitability.

While I'm not ready to proclaim the banking sector out of the woods quite yet, I tend to agree that it's likely that US Bancorp will be a leader of the pack when it starts to emerge.

But here's the important question: What's your take on US Bancorp? Get in on the action by clicking over to CAPS. CAPS is absolutely free, and already more than 130,000 stock pickers are chipping in to find the best stocks out there.

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