Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Has $84,000 Stock Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. cut its holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 89.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 8,722 shares during the quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $84,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in SCCO. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 1.3% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 283,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,523,000 after buying an additional 3,611 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Southern Copper by 48.3% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 11,974 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $909,000 after purchasing an additional 3,901 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Copper in the first quarter worth about $388,000. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in Southern Copper by 121.4% in the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 173,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $13,138,000 after purchasing an additional 94,910 shares during the period. Finally, BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Southern Copper by 10.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,022,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $532,978,000 after purchasing an additional 680,165 shares during the period. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Southern Copper from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Southern Copper from $61.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $91.00 to $130.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Southern Copper from $63.50 to $61.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.71.

Southern Copper Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE:SCCO opened at $113.42 on Friday. Southern Copper Co. has a fifty-two week low of $64.66 and a fifty-two week high of $120.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 3.19 and a quick ratio of 2.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.68 billion, a PE ratio of 36.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $96.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.21.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.73 by ($0.15). Southern Copper had a net margin of 24.51% and a return on equity of 30.85%. The business had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Southern Copper Co. will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 13th were issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 12th. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 101.91%.

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.