Southern Copper (SCCO) Competitors

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, community ranking, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and media sentiment.

Is SCCO or FCX a better dividend stock?

Southern Copper pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Freeport-McMoRan pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Southern Copper pays out 61.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Freeport-McMoRan pays out 24.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Does the media refer more to SCCO or FCX?

In the previous week, Freeport-McMoRan had 14 more articles in the media than Southern Copper. MarketBeat recorded 32 mentions for Freeport-McMoRan and 18 mentions for Southern Copper. Southern Copper's average media sentiment score of 1.48 beat Freeport-McMoRan's score of 0.97 indicating that Southern Copper is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Southern Copper	16 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Freeport-McMoRan	17 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals believe in SCCO or FCX?

7.9% of Southern Copper shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.8% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Southern Copper shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend SCCO or FCX?

Southern Copper presently has a consensus target price of $91.50, suggesting a potential downside of 1.99%. Freeport-McMoRan has a consensus target price of $48.36, suggesting a potential upside of 24.36%. Given Freeport-McMoRan's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Freeport-McMoRan is more favorable than Southern Copper.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Southern Copper	2 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83
Freeport-McMoRan	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.93

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer SCCO or FCX?

Freeport-McMoRan received 735 more outperform votes than Southern Copper when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.18% of users gave Freeport-McMoRan an outperform vote while only 55.62% of users gave Southern Copper an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Southern Copper	Outperform Votes 396 55.62%	Underperform Votes 316 44.38%
Freeport-McMoRan	Outperform Votes 1131 66.18%	Underperform Votes 578 33.82%

Is SCCO or FCX more profitable?

Southern Copper has a net margin of 29.53% compared to Freeport-McMoRan's net margin of 7.42%. Southern Copper's return on equity of 40.27% beat Freeport-McMoRan's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Southern Copper	29.53%	40.27%	19.12%
Freeport-McMoRan	7.42%	7.50%	3.92%

Which has better valuation and earnings, SCCO or FCX?

Southern Copper has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Freeport-McMoRan. Southern Copper is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Freeport-McMoRan, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Southern Copper	$11.96B	6.22	$3.38B	$4.57	20.43
Freeport-McMoRan	$24.86B	2.25	$1.89B	$1.21	32.14

Which has more volatility & risk, SCCO or FCX?

Southern Copper has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freeport-McMoRan has a beta of 1.65, meaning that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Freeport-McMoRan beats Southern Copper on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.