Empirical Asset Management LLC Acquires 306 Shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Empirical Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,859 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $331,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital World Investors bought a new position in Southern Copper in the first quarter worth approximately $340,373,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 18.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,771,332 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $827,804,000 after purchasing an additional 1,192,111 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 54.6% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,541,396 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $164,190,000 after purchasing an additional 544,312 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Southern Copper by 1,300.4% during the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 443,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,760,000 after purchasing an additional 411,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the first quarter valued at about $27,163,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on SCCO. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Southern Copper in a report on Friday, July 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $97.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Southern Copper from $99.44 to $100.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.88.

Southern Copper Price Performance

NYSE SCCO opened at $117.56 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $91.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.06, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 2.81 and a quick ratio of 2.27. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $105.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $109.95. Southern Copper Co. has a 1 year low of $68.93 and a 1 year high of $129.79.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.09. Southern Copper had a return on equity of 34.98% and a net margin of 26.15%. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.96 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is 79.73%.

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.