California Public Employees Retirement System Has $13.02 Million Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

California Public Employees Retirement System trimmed its holdings in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 8.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 142,916 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 13,002 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $13,024,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. abrdn plc lifted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,849,638 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $260,428,000 after buying an additional 118,909 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Southern Copper by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,728,802 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $315,641,000 after acquiring an additional 27,358 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 599,610 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Southern Copper by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 972,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $88,638,000 after purchasing an additional 18,426 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 3.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 613,286 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $70,437,000 after purchasing an additional 20,204 shares during the period. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southern Copper Trading Down 9.5 %

Shares of Southern Copper stock opened at $78.46 on Friday. Southern Copper Co. has a 52-week low of $77.43 and a 52-week high of $127.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.47 billion, a PE ratio of 18.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $93.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.37.

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

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This is a positive change from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.57%. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is currently 64.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on SCCO. Scotiabank raised their target price on Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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 research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $94.42.

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.