Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Raises Stake in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its position in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 6.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 78,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 5,052 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $7,124,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Southern Copper by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 108,753 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,969,000 after purchasing an additional 14,391 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in 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 period. 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. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in Southern Copper by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 137,019 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,487,000 after purchasing an additional 24,933 shares during the period. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Southern Copper in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,397,000. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SCCO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $106.30 to $102.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group raised shares of Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Scotiabank lifted 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.31.

Southern Copper Trading Up 1.8 %

NYSE SCCO opened at $100.98 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $94.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.57. Southern Copper Co. has a 52 week low of $84.33 and a 52 week 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 cap of $80.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.37, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12.

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

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This is a positive change from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.81%.

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.