Mawer Investment Management Ltd. Trims Stock Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lowered its holdings in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 99.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,605,738 shares during the quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $308,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 30.9% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 13,516 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,563,000 after purchasing an additional 3,193 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Southern Copper by 578.3% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 407 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in Southern Copper by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 22,775 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,634,000 after acquiring an additional 466 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Southern Copper by 1,601.3% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 192,571 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,275,000 after acquiring an additional 181,252 shares during the period. Finally, Townsquare Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 48.7% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 8,687 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,005,000 after acquiring an additional 2,845 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on SCCO shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group upgraded Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.42.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

Shares of Southern Copper stock opened at $94.11 on Friday. Southern Copper Co. has a one year low of $84.33 and a one year high of $127.34. The company has a market capitalization of $74.93 billion, a PE ratio of 21.78, 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. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.69.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 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%. Research analysts expect that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.70 dividend. This is a boost 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 dividend yield of 2.98%. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.81%.

Southern Copper Company 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.