Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Sells 6,331 Shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC reduced its stake in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 5.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 106,689 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 6,331 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $9,971,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at about $8,420,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Southern Copper by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 237,437 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,638,000 after buying an additional 4,889 shares during the period. Bearing Point Capital LLC bought a new stake in Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $257,000. Jump Financial LLC boosted its position in Southern Copper by 48.3% during the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 23,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,128,000 after acquiring an additional 7,607 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HM Payson & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 1,478.3% during the 4th quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 3,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $292,000 after acquiring an additional 3,001 shares during the period. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on SCCO. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $84.00 to $83.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group lowered their price target 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. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Southern Copper from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.50.

Southern Copper Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE SCCO opened at $95.65 on Friday. Southern Copper Co. has a 12 month low of $74.11 and a 12 month high of $118.64. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $89.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $93.39. The stock has a market cap of $76.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.01.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.05 billion. Southern Copper had a net margin of 29.53% and a return on equity of 40.27%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 2nd. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is 61.27%.

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.