Raymond James & Associates Sells 22,337 Shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Raymond James & Associates decreased its stake in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 18.8% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 96,698 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 22,337 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Southern Copper were worth $10,418,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SCCO. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 18.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,771,332 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $827,804,000 after buying an additional 1,192,111 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Southern Copper by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,349,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $288,333,000 after purchasing an additional 39,422 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors bought a new position in Southern Copper in the first quarter valued at about $340,373,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Southern Copper by 54.6% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,541,396 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $164,190,000 after purchasing an additional 544,312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,014,356 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $87,306,000 after purchasing an additional 18,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Southern Copper Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE:SCCO opened at $104.62 on Monday. Southern Copper Co. has a 52 week low of $68.93 and a 52 week high of $129.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 2.81. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $106.68 and its 200-day moving average is $105.41. The firm has a market cap of $81.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.20.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.09. Southern Copper had a net margin of 26.15% and a return on equity of 34.98%. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.96 billion. Equities analysts expect that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 79.77%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $81.70 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. StockNews.com raised shares of Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “sector underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Southern Copper in a report on Friday, July 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Southern Copper has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.57.

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.