CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Purchases 32,515 Shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its stake in shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO - Free Report) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 259,597 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 32,515 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co's holdings in Southern Copper were worth $23,634,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Southern Copper by 74.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,402,983 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $162,283,000 after buying an additional 599,610 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Southern Copper during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $52,738,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Southern Copper by 1,417.7% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 407,912 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $37,173,000 after purchasing an additional 381,035 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in Southern Copper by 49.6% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 998,923 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $91,032,000 after purchasing an additional 331,319 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Southern Copper during the fourth quarter valued at $19,785,000. 7.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SCCO. 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 report on Tuesday, April 15th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Southern Copper from $52.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a "sector underperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $84.00 to $83.50 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Southern Copper has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $91.50.

Southern Copper Price Performance

NYSE:SCCO traded up $3.19 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $92.30. 1,578,354 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,223,485. Southern Copper Co. has a 12-month low of $74.84 and a 12-month high of $127.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.31, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a market cap of $73.49 billion, a PE ratio of 21.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.04. The business's 50-day moving average price is $90.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.67.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.02 by ($0.01). Southern Copper had a return on equity of 40.27% and a net margin of 29.53%. On average, analysts expect that Southern Copper Co. will post 4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase from Southern Copper's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Southern Copper's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.81%.

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.