Machina Capital S.A.S. Grows Stock Position in Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO)

Machina Capital S.A.S. lifted its position in Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO - Free Report) by 139.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,593 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,927 shares during the quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S.'s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $1,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Southern Copper in the fourth quarter worth $84,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Southern Copper by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 56,279 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,129,000 after buying an additional 3,559 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 40.5% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 209,390 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $19,082,000 after acquiring an additional 60,360 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at $3,273,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Southern Copper by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 135,849 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $12,380,000 after buying an additional 9,966 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.94% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on SCCO shares. Hsbc Global Res raised Southern Copper from a "moderate sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Southern Copper from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $86.00 to $99.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $83.50 to $79.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Southern Copper from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $91.00.

Southern Copper Trading Down 1.3%

NYSE SCCO traded down $1.26 during trading on Friday, hitting $98.22. The stock had a trading volume of 992,999 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,602,710. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $93.86. Southern Copper Corporation has a one year low of $74.84 and a one year high of $121.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a current ratio of 3.71.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.05 billion. Southern Copper had a return on equity of 39.39% and a net margin of 30.00%. Sell-side analysts predict that Southern Copper Corporation will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a -- dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 4th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a $1.01 dividend. This is an increase from Southern Copper's previous -- dividend of $0.62. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 15th. This represents a yield of 2.7%. Southern Copper's payout ratio is 61.27%.

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.