Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 18,426 Shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 972,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,426 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of Southern Copper worth $88,638,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. abrdn plc grew its stake in Southern Copper by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,849,638 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $260,428,000 after purchasing an additional 118,909 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Southern Copper by 1.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,728,802 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $315,641,000 after buying an additional 27,358 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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 worth $162,283,000 after buying an additional 599,610 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 20,204 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Southern Copper by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 451,421 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,603,000 after acquiring an additional 6,023 shares during the last quarter. 7.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

Shares of SCCO opened at $84.50 on Thursday. 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 12-month low of $74.84 and a 12-month high of $127.34. The company has a market cap of $67.28 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $92.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $99.56.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.31%. This is an increase from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is presently 64.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.42.

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.