Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Has $797,000 Stock Holdings in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) by 176.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,588 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Southern Copper by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 22,829 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,080,000 after buying an additional 3,705 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position in shares of Southern Copper by 58.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 533,640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,631,000 after acquiring an additional 197,209 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of Southern Copper by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 45,772 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,171,000 after acquiring an additional 1,872 shares during the period. Parvin Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Southern Copper during the 4th quarter worth about $409,000. Finally, Randolph Co Inc raised its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Randolph Co Inc now owns 194,545 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,729,000 after purchasing an additional 1,183 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SCCO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Southern Copper from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Southern Copper from $120.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Southern Copper from $84.00 to $83.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.50.

Southern Copper Stock Performance

SCCO opened at $90.51 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The company has a market capitalization of $72.06 billion, a PE ratio of 20.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.09. Southern Copper Co. has a 1 year low of $74.11 and a 1 year high of $126.09.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.14. Southern Copper had a net margin of 29.53% and a return on equity of 40.27%. The business had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.05 billion. Research analysts expect that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current year.

Southern Copper Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 19th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 5th will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. This represents a dividend yield of 2.98%. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is 61.27%.

About Southern Copper

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.