Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Stake Boosted by Gallacher Capital Management LLC

Gallacher Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 20.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,030 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 695 shares during the quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $367,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of SCCO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 74.6% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,402,983 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $162,283,000 after buying an additional 599,610 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in Southern Copper by 115,910.7% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 336,431 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,915,000 after purchasing an additional 336,141 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Southern Copper by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,963,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $342,796,000 after purchasing an additional 283,562 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in Southern Copper by 1,601.3% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 192,571 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,275,000 after purchasing an additional 181,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Copper in the 4th quarter worth approximately $15,197,000. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on SCCO shares. UBS Group upgraded Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Southern Copper currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.31.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

SCCO opened at $96.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $76.54 billion, a PE ratio of 22.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Southern Copper Co. has a 1 year low of $84.33 and a 1 year high of $129.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $93.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.64.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 earnings per share (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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This is a boost from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.91%. Southern Copper’s 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.