Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Announces Dividend of $0.70

Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO - Get Free Report) announced a dividend on Tuesday, April 29th, investing.com reports. Investors of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, May 19th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd.

Southern Copper has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 37.0% per year over the last three years. Southern Copper has a payout ratio of 61.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Southern Copper to earn $4.57 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 61.3%.

Southern Copper Price Performance

Southern Copper stock traded up $0.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $90.23. The company's stock had a trading volume of 796,181 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,216,357. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.04. Southern Copper has a twelve month low of $74.11 and a twelve month high of $126.09. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $90.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $96.67. The company has a quick ratio of 2.31, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.14. Southern Copper had a return on equity of 40.27% and a net margin of 29.53%. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.05 billion. Research analysts forecast that Southern Copper will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.