Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Trims Stake in Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. reduced its stake in Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO) by 0.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 224,493 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,678 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $20,981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 521 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Cadence Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Cadence Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,919 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 8,043 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $733,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Balefire LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Balefire LLC now owns 4,779 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $447,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Centerstone Investors LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Centerstone Investors LLC now owns 23,438 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,136,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. 7.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SCCO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Itau BBA Securities raised Southern Copper from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. UBS Group cut Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday. Hsbc Global Res raised Southern Copper from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen cut Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern Copper has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.60.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

SCCO stock opened at $105.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.13 billion, a PE ratio of 23.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.02. Southern Copper Corporation has a 12-month low of $74.11 and a 12-month high of $118.64. The company has a current ratio of 3.71, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $94.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $93.11.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.05 billion. Southern Copper had a return on equity of 39.39% and a net margin of 30.00%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Southern Copper Corporation will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 2nd. This represents a dividend yield of 2.98%. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is 61.27%.

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.