Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Increases Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 25.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 574 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $301,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Southern Copper by 8,523.8% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 172,907 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,882,000 after purchasing an additional 170,902 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its stake in Southern Copper by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC lifted its holdings in Southern Copper by 106.4% in the fourth quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 7,320 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $630,000 after buying an additional 3,773 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. bought a new stake in Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $279,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,348,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $288,195,000 after acquiring an additional 37,823 shares during the period. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Southern Copper Trading Up 0.3 %

Southern Copper stock opened at $101.72 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $106.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $105.70. Southern Copper Co. has a 52-week low of $68.93 and a 52-week high of $129.79. The company has a quick ratio of 2.27, a current ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $79.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.20.

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

Southern Copper Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is 79.73%.

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.