NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Freeport-McMoRan shares are up 5.2% to $19.93 in trading on Wednesday as oil prices rally today on signs of slowing domestic crude production at the same time that global demand is rising.Also helping Freeport's stock this week was an analyst note from Citigroup that upgraded the company's stock to "buy" from "neutral" while also raising its price target to $23 from $19.U.S. oil inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels to 483.7 million barrels during the week ended April 10, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, short of the 3.6 million barrel increase that analysts were expecting.Industry standard Brent crude contracts for May delivery are up 2.52% to $59.90 per barrel, while West Texas crude for May delivery also climbs,up 4.05% to $55.45 per barrel.Oil prices have reached multi-year lows in recent months as a glut of supply, thanks in part to increased U.S. shale production, has put pressure on the market. TheStreet Ratings team rates FREEPORT-MCMORAN INC as a Sell with a ratings score of D+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate FREEPORT-MCMORAN INC (FCX) a SELL. This is driven by some concerns, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, generally high debt management risk, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Metals & Mining industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 503.4% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $707.00 million to -$2,852.00 million. The debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04 is relatively high when compared with the industry average, suggesting a need for better debt level management. To add to this, FCX has a quick ratio of 0.59, this demonstrates the lack of ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs. Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Metals & Mining industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, FREEPORT-MCMORAN INC underperformed against that of the industry average and is significantly less than that of the S&P 500. Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to $1,118.00 million or 53.33% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, FREEPORT-MCMORAN INC has marginally lower results. Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 44.74%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 504.41% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now. You can view the full analysis from the report here: FCX Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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