Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) Cut to “Underweight” at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley cut shares of Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating in a report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $99.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $86.00.

SCCO has been the topic of several other reports. Wall Street Zen cut Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Hsbc Global Res raised Southern Copper from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group lowered Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $83.50 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.00.

Southern Copper Stock Down 0.0%

Southern Copper stock opened at $96.63 on Tuesday. Southern Copper has a 52 week low of $74.11 and a 52 week high of $118.64. The stock has a market cap of $76.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.14, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $96.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.60. The company has a current ratio of 3.71, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.14. Southern Copper had a net margin of 30.00% and a return on equity of 39.39%. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.05 billion. On average, analysts expect that Southern Copper will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 19th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 5th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 2nd. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.27%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Southern Copper

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 237,437 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,638,000 after buying an additional 4,889 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at about $84,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Southern Copper in the 4th quarter valued at about $8,420,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Southern Copper by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 33,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,009,000 after purchasing an additional 3,362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its position in Southern Copper by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 196,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,940,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares in the last quarter. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.