Analysts Set Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO) PT at $93.60

Key Points

• Southern Copper Corporation has received an average rating of "Reduce" from seven brokerages, with three analysts recommending a sell and four a hold.
• The company recently increased its quarterly dividend to $1.01 per share, representing an annualized dividend yield of 4.0%.
• JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Southern Copper by 10.8% in the second quarter, now owning approximately 1.72 million shares valued at about $174 million.

Shares of Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Reduce" from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $93.60.

SCCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group cut Southern Copper from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley reissued an "underweight" rating and set a $99.00 price target (up from $86.00) on shares of Southern Copper in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen cut Southern Copper from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Itau BBA Securities raised Southern Copper from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Southern Copper from $79.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

Southern Copper stock traded up $1.65 during trading on Friday, reaching $101.56. The company had a trading volume of 241,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,401,420. Southern Copper has a 52 week low of $74.84 and a 52 week high of $121.44. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $98.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $94.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $81.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 5.27, a quick ratio of 4.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $1.01 per share. This is a boost from Southern Copper's previous quarterly dividend of $0.62. This represents a $4.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. Southern Copper's payout ratio is 70.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Southern Copper

In other news, Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 414 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $41,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,327 shares in the company, valued at $232,700. This trade represents a 15.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 1,028 shares of company stock worth $102,014 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SCCO. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the second quarter worth about $57,901,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the fourth quarter worth about $40,226,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the first quarter worth about $40,338,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the first quarter worth about $34,086,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Southern Copper by 26.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,551,878 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $145,039,000 after acquiring an additional 322,935 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.94% of the company's stock.

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.