Advocate Group LLC Cuts Stake in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Advocate Group LLC lowered its stake in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 33,920 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,354 shares during the period. Advocate Group LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $2,919,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Southern Copper by 200.6% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,179,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $208,201,000 after acquiring an additional 2,789,376 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Southern Copper by 43.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,763,612 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $209,759,000 after acquiring an additional 835,044 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Southern Copper by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,797,970 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $594,595,000 after acquiring an additional 756,555 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Southern Copper by 80.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,537,487 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $117,233,000 after acquiring an additional 685,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Republic Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Southern Copper by 722.8% during the 1st quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. now owns 646,160 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $49,044,000 after acquiring an additional 567,629 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Southern Copper Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of Southern Copper stock traded up $2.20 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $106.52. The stock had a trading volume of 1,130,038 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,442,260. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $86.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $80.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.46, a current ratio of 3.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. Southern Copper Co. has a 12-month low of $64.66 and a 12-month high of $107.13. The firm has a market cap of $82.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.92 and a beta of 1.27.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.73 by ($0.15). Southern Copper had a return on equity of 30.85% and a net margin of 24.51%. The company had revenue of $2.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 3.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 13th were issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 12th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.00%. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is currently 101.91%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on SCCO shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $63.50 to $61.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $91.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $61.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.83.

Southern Copper 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.