Empowered Funds LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 44.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,685 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,744 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $518,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its holdings in Southern Copper by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 3,876 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,000 after acquiring an additional 338 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 226,171 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,611,000 after buying an additional 1,064 shares during the period. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Klein Pavlis & Peasley Financial Inc. now owns 39,837 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,630,000 after buying an additional 2,132 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 4,266 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $389,000 after buying an additional 458 shares during the period. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 3,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $352,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SCCO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $106.30 to $102.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $94.81.

Southern Copper Price Performance

SCCO stock opened at $96.40 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $94.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.94. The stock has a market cap of $75.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.31, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.13. Southern Copper Co. has a fifty-two week low of $78.82 and a fifty-two week high of $129.79. The company has a quick ratio of 2.31, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

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

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This is a positive change from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.90%. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is 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.