Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Shares Sold by National Pension Service

National Pension Service decreased its stake in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,889 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 824 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $2,359,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of SCCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Southern Copper by 74.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,402,983 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $162,283,000 after purchasing an additional 599,610 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position in Southern Copper by 115,910.7% during the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 336,431 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,915,000 after purchasing an additional 336,141 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Southern Copper by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,963,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $342,796,000 after purchasing an additional 283,562 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Southern Copper by 1,601.3% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 192,571 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,275,000 after purchasing an additional 181,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc grew its position in Southern Copper by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,849,638 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $260,428,000 after purchasing an additional 118,909 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Southern Copper Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:SCCO opened at $88.78 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $69.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.55, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.13. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $94.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.62. 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $79.33 and a fifty-two week high of $129.79.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced 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 net margin of 29.53% and a return on equity of 40.27%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This is a boost from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.15%. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.81%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SCCO has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern Copper currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.81.

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.