Magnetar Financial LLC Takes $313,000 Position in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 3,437 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $313,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SCCO. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position 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 valued at $9,969,000 after purchasing an additional 14,391 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position 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 valued at $10,430,000 after purchasing an additional 71,558 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position 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 valued at $162,283,000 after purchasing an additional 599,610 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position 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 valued at $12,487,000 after purchasing an additional 24,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,397,000. 7.94% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on SCCO shares. UBS Group upgraded Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.42.

Southern Copper Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:SCCO opened at $100.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $80.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.37, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.31. Southern Copper Co. has a 1 year low of $84.33 and a 1 year high of $127.34. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $94.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.60.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.01). Southern Copper had a net margin of 29.53% and a return on equity of 40.27%. Sell-side analysts expect that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.81%.

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.