Verus Capital Partners LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Verus Capital Partners LLC decreased its position in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 21.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,299 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 641 shares during the quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $210,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SCCO. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 30.7% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 5,167 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $598,000 after buying an additional 1,215 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 50.6% during the third quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 3,354 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $388,000 after buying an additional 1,127 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its holdings in Southern Copper by 3.5% in the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 3,808 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $440,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in Southern Copper by 172.0% in the third quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 223 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Inc. OK boosted its holdings in Southern Copper by 2.8% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 264,267 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,568,000 after purchasing an additional 7,232 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on SCCO shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $106.30 to $102.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Southern Copper from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $92.50 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.81.

Southern Copper Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of Southern Copper stock opened at $88.78 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $94.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.74 billion, a PE ratio of 20.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.13. Southern Copper Co. has a 1-year low of $79.33 and a 1-year high of $129.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.31.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.02 by ($0.01). Southern Copper had a return on equity of 40.27% and a net margin of 29.53%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.15%. This is an increase from Southern Copper’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.81%.

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.