Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, global mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX 2.40%) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Freeport and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Freeport facts

 

 

Headquarters (founded)

Phoenix, Ariz. (1987)

Market Cap

$28.0 billion

Industry

Diversified metals and mining

Trailing-12-Month Revenue

$18.0 billion

Management

CEO Richard Adkerson

CFO Kathleen Quirk

Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)

30.1%

Cash/Debt

$9.6 billion/$10.1 billion

Dividend Yield

4.2%

Competitors

BHP Billiton 

Newmont Mining 

Southern Copper 

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 97% of the 5,998 members who have rated Freeport believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Just last week, one of those Fools, timclaason, tapped Freeport as a particularly attractive long-term opportunity:

There's really no reason to believe FCX is going to have a price spike anytime soon. They're currently in a downward price trend, and most metal mining companies are in a similar trend.

I picked them to outperform because they look better on paper than many of their competitors -- net profit margin, PE/PEG, Price/Sales, and debt levels. I also expect the bottom to occur reasonably soon, since there's a limit to investors' bearishness with gold, silver, and copper.

I think that in the long term, FCX is a good buy in real life.