Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Acquires New Position in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 333 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of SCCO. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $456,000. Pathstone Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 12,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,448,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Southern Copper in the third quarter worth $217,000. Prospera Financial Services Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 39.7% during the third quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 3,389 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $392,000 after purchasing an additional 963 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 4.8% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 16,955 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,961,000 after purchasing an additional 778 shares in the last quarter. 7.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group upgraded shares of Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $106.30 to $102.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $94.42.

Southern Copper Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:SCCO opened at $99.74 on Tuesday. Southern Copper Co. has a one year low of $84.33 and a one year high of $127.34. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $94.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $79.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.31.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.01). Southern Copper had a return on equity of 40.27% and a net margin of 29.53%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This is a boost from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.81%. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is 64.81%.

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.