Bank of America Corp DE Cuts Position in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Bank of America Corp DE lessened its holdings in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO - Free Report) by 24.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,267,495 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 406,039 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned approximately 0.16% of Southern Copper worth $115,507,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SCCO. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 210.7% during the 4th quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 379 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 143.4% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 477 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 28.0% during the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 521 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.94% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SCCO. UBS Group cut their price target on Southern Copper from $120.00 to $100.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Southern Copper from $84.00 to $83.50 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Southern Copper from a "moderate sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Southern Copper from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "sector underperform" rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $91.50.

Southern Copper Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of SCCO stock traded down $1.73 during trading on Friday, hitting $90.49. 569,146 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,207,319. The firm has a market capitalization of $72.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $90.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $95.08. Southern Copper Co. has a 52-week low of $74.11 and a 52-week high of $126.09.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.05 billion. Southern Copper had a net margin of 29.53% and a return on equity of 40.27%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. Southern Copper's payout ratio is 61.27%.

About Southern Copper

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.