Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Shares Bought by Ion Asset Management Ltd.

Ion Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 123.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,060 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,798 shares during the quarter. Ion Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $461,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 210.7% in the fourth quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 379 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 143.4% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 281 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in Southern Copper by 28.0% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SCCO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $84.00 to $83.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $120.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Hsbc Global Res raised Southern Copper from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $91.50.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

SCCO stock opened at $93.78 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $90.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $96.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $74.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.71, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.04. 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 1 year low of $74.84 and a 1 year high of $127.34.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.05 billion. Southern Copper had a net margin of 29.53% and a return on equity of 40.27%. On average, research analysts predict that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Southern Copper Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. This represents a yield of 2.98%. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.27%.

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.