Natixis Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 8.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,444 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $2,333,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SCCO. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 33.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 9,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,121,000 after buying an additional 2,442 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Copper during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $456,000. Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its stake in Southern Copper by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 12,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,448,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Copper during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Finally, Prospera Financial Services Inc grew its stake in Southern Copper by 39.7% during the 3rd 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. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Southern Copper Price Performance

Shares of SCCO opened at $100.98 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $80.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $94.27 and a 200-day moving average of $100.63. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Southern Copper Co. has a 52 week low of $84.33 and a 52 week high of $127.34.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 earnings per share (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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase 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 2.77%. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.81%.

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.