Howard Financial Services LTD. Buys Shares of 1,756 Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Howard Financial Services LTD. purchased a new position in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 1,756 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of SCCO. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Southern Copper during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Southern Copper in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Fortis Group Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 100.0% during the fourth quarter. Fortis Group Advisors LLC now owns 302 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hanseatic Management Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Southern Copper in the second quarter worth approximately $53,000. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SCCO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $97.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Citigroup increased their target price on Southern Copper from $99.44 to $100.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on Southern Copper in a research note on Friday, July 12th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.88.

Southern Copper Price Performance

Shares of SCCO stock opened at $111.74 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a current ratio of 2.81. Southern Copper Co. has a fifty-two week low of $68.93 and a fifty-two week high of $129.79. The firm has a market cap of $87.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $104.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $109.60.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.09. Southern Copper had a net margin of 26.15% and a return on equity of 34.98%. The company had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.96 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Southern Copper Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.77%.

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.