Philadelphia Trust Co. Purchases 1,754 Shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Philadelphia Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 36.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,600 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,754 shares during the period. Philadelphia Trust Co.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $601,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Southern Copper in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 143.4% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Spire Wealth Management bought a new stake in Southern Copper during the fourth quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Southern Copper by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. 7.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SCCO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.42.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

NYSE SCCO opened at $84.51 on Friday. 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 market capitalization of $67.28 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.04. Southern Copper Co. has a 52-week low of $74.84 and a 52-week high of $127.34. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $92.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.15.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 40.27% and a net margin of 29.53%. On average, research analysts predict that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This is a boost from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. 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.