Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Raises Dividend to $0.70 Per Share

Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60.

Southern Copper has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 37.0% annually over the last three years.

Southern Copper Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SCCO traded down $0.66 during trading on Friday, reaching $96.52. The stock had a trading volume of 952,946 shares, compared to its average volume of 742,142. Southern Copper has a 52 week low of $77.42 and a 52 week high of $129.79. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $97.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $103.61. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $75.82 billion, a PE ratio of 24.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.14.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The basic materials company reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. Southern Copper had a net margin of 27.67% and a return on equity of 37.11%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Southern Copper will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on SCCO shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $99.44 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 target price for the company in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $54.00 to $52.00 and set a “sector underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Southern Copper presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $94.81.

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.