Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 4,654 Southern Copper Corporation $SCCO

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern Copper Corporation (NYSE:SCCO) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 4,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $471,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of SCCO. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,338,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Southern Copper in the first quarter worth $34,086,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Southern Copper by 26.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,551,878 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $145,039,000 after acquiring an additional 322,935 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Southern Copper during the first quarter worth about $15,382,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in shares of Southern Copper in the 1st quarter worth about $15,019,000. 7.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Southern Copper Price Performance

Shares of Southern Copper stock opened at $134.35 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $129.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.70. Southern Copper Corporation has a 12-month low of $74.84 and a 12-month high of $144.81. The firm has a market cap of $109.12 billion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 4.51, a current ratio of 5.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.26 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.05 billion. Southern Copper had a net margin of 30.98% and a return on equity of 39.62%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Southern Copper Corporation will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Southern Copper Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. Southern Copper’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 200 shares of Southern Copper stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.35, for a total value of $27,870.00. Following the sale, the director owned 1,713 shares in the company, valued at $238,706.55. The trade was a 10.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 962 shares of company stock valued at $118,232 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SCCO has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and set a $115.00 price objective (up from $89.00) on shares of Southern Copper in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $92.00 to $114.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern Copper in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $155.00 price objective on Southern Copper and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern Copper has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.94.

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.