Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO – Get Free Report) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Scotiabank lowered their price target on the stock from $55.00 to $54.00. The stock had previously closed at $126.71, but opened at $122.25. Scotiabank currently has a sector underperform rating on the stock. Southern Copper shares last traded at $120.87, with a volume of 220,077 shares changing hands.
Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on SCCO. CICC Research initiated coverage on shares of Southern Copper in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $61.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $63.50 to $61.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Southern Copper presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.33.
Insider Activity
In related news, Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total value of $35,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $546,759. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 600 shares of company stock valued at $63,430 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern Copper
Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SCCO. Capital World Investors bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper in the 1st quarter valued at about $340,373,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,771,332 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $827,804,000 after purchasing an additional 1,192,111 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper in the 4th quarter valued at about $71,802,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 54.6% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,541,396 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $164,190,000 after purchasing an additional 544,312 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in Southern Copper by 677.0% in the 3rd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 310,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,378,000 after acquiring an additional 270,540 shares during the period. 7.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Southern Copper Stock Performance
The stock has a market capitalization of $91.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.56, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 2.56 and a current ratio of 3.31. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $112.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $91.43.
Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $2.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. Southern Copper had a net margin of 24.20% and a return on equity of 30.44%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 3.97 EPS for the current year.
Southern Copper Cuts Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be given a dividend of $0.01 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.03%. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is presently 1.33%.
Southern Copper Company Profile
Southern Copper Corporation engages in mining, exploring, smelting, and refining copper and other minerals in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile. The company is involved in the mining, milling, and flotation of copper ore to produce copper and molybdenum concentrates; smelting of copper concentrates to produce blister and anode copper; refining of anode copper to produce copper cathodes; production of molybdenum concentrate and sulfuric acid; production of refined silver, gold, and other materials; and mining and processing of zinc, copper, molybdenum, silver, gold, and lead.