Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) Rating Lowered to Reduce at HSBC

HSBC cut shares of Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) from a hold rating to a reduce rating in a report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $80.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on SCCO. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Southern Copper from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a sector underperform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Southern Copper from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $63.50 to $61.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $61.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southern Copper from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the company from $91.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Reduce and an average target price of $76.00.

Southern Copper Stock Down 1.6 %

SCCO stock opened at $111.59 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $97.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $84.65. The company has a market capitalization of $86.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.29. Southern Copper has a 52 week low of $64.66 and a 52 week high of $120.37. The company has a current ratio of 3.19, a quick ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Southern Copper had a net margin of 24.51% and a return on equity of 30.85%. On average, analysts forecast that Southern Copper will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 12th. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is presently 101.91%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nilsine Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 5,719 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $609,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Southern Copper by 120.9% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 119,035 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,680,000 after purchasing an additional 65,150 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Southern Copper in the first quarter valued at $506,000. Marshall Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 3.6% in the first quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 21,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,291,000 after buying an additional 755 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 13.8% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 3,685 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $393,000 after buying an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. 7.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.