Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Shares Sold by Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. lessened its position in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,888 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 179 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $901,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of SCCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Southern Copper by 74.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,402,983 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $162,283,000 after purchasing an additional 599,610 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its holdings in Southern Copper by 115,910.7% in the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 336,431 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,915,000 after purchasing an additional 336,141 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Southern Copper by 10.6% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,963,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $342,796,000 after purchasing an additional 283,562 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Southern Copper by 1,601.3% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 192,571 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,275,000 after purchasing an additional 181,252 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc grew its holdings in Southern Copper by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,849,638 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $260,428,000 after purchasing an additional 118,909 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Southern Copper Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE SCCO opened at $91.02 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $93.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.10. Southern Copper Co. has a 52 week low of $84.33 and a 52 week high of $129.79. 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 cap of $71.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.07, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This is a boost from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is presently 64.81%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SCCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 target price for the company in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Southern Copper has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.81.

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.