Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Shares Sold by Ramirez Asset Management Inc.

Ramirez Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 44,187 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,871 shares during the quarter. Ramirez Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $4,001,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in SCCO. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Southern Copper by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 108,753 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,969,000 after acquiring an additional 14,391 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 384.4% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 90,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,430,000 after purchasing an additional 71,558 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Southern Copper by 74.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,402,983 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $162,283,000 after buying an additional 599,610 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in Southern Copper by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 137,019 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,487,000 after buying an additional 24,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Southern Copper in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,397,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on SCCO shares. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. UBS Group raised shares of Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 price target for the company in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern Copper currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.42.

Southern Copper Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE SCCO opened at $96.90 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $94.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.65. Southern Copper Co. has a twelve month low of $84.33 and a twelve month high of $127.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.15 billion, a PE ratio of 22.43, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.01). Southern Copper had a return on equity of 40.27% and a net margin of 29.53%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is 64.81%.

Southern Copper 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.