Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Shares Sold by Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.

Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. cut its stake in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 9,888 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 179 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $901,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 7.2% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 230,495 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,661,000 after purchasing an additional 15,386 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 15.3% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 108,753 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,969,000 after purchasing an additional 14,391 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 384.4% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 90,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,430,000 after purchasing an additional 71,558 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 74.6% during the third 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 period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 137,019 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,487,000 after purchasing an additional 24,933 shares during the period. 7.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Southern Copper Stock Up 0.2 %

Southern Copper stock opened at $91.02 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $71.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a current ratio of 2.77. Southern Copper Co. has a one year low of $84.33 and a one year high of $129.79.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last released its quarterly earnings results 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%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This is a positive change from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.