Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

SCCO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $115.00 target price (up previously from $89.00) on shares of Southern Copper in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Southern Copper in a report on Friday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley set a $132.00 target price on shares of Southern Copper and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Southern Copper in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “sell” rating and set a $108.00 price objective (up previously from $89.10) on shares of Southern Copper in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.94.

Southern Copper Stock Up 0.4%

SCCO stock opened at $140.55 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.52, a quick ratio of 3.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $114.15 billion, a PE ratio of 29.47, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.07. Southern Copper has a 1 year low of $74.84 and a 1 year high of $144.81. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $131.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $110.55.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last announced its quarterly 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.05 billion. Southern Copper had a return on equity of 38.74% and a net margin of 30.98%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Southern Copper will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Southern Copper news, Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 400 shares of Southern Copper stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.00, for a total transaction of $55,600.00. Following the sale, the director owned 1,265 shares in the company, valued at $175,835. The trade was a 24.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 1,148 shares of company stock valued at $152,218 over the last three months. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. grew its position in Southern Copper by 65.1% in the third quarter. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. now owns 213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. Tobam acquired a new position in Southern Copper during the second quarter worth $29,000. United Community Bank acquired a new position in Southern Copper during the third quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC bought a new position in shares of Southern Copper during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.94% of the company’s stock.

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.