Southern Copper (SCCO) Competitors

Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) and Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and media sentiment.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in FCX or SCCO?

80.8% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 7.9% of Southern Copper shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Freeport-McMoRan shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Southern Copper shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer FCX or SCCO?

In the previous week, Freeport-McMoRan had 42 more articles in the media than Southern Copper. MarketBeat recorded 57 mentions for Freeport-McMoRan and 15 mentions for Southern Copper. Freeport-McMoRan's average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat Southern Copper's score of 0.92 indicating that Freeport-McMoRan is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Freeport-McMoRan	36 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Southern Copper	12 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, FCX or SCCO?

Freeport-McMoRan has a beta of 1.87, meaning that its stock price is 87% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern Copper has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer FCX or SCCO?

Freeport-McMoRan currently has a consensus target price of $52.04, indicating a potential upside of 20.79%. Southern Copper has a consensus target price of $94.42, indicating a potential downside of 6.68%. Given Freeport-McMoRan's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Freeport-McMoRan is more favorable than Southern Copper.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Freeport-McMoRan	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.81
Southern Copper	3 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.86

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in FCX or SCCO?

Freeport-McMoRan received 729 more outperform votes than Southern Copper when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.14% of users gave Freeport-McMoRan an outperform vote while only 55.73% of users gave Southern Copper an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Freeport-McMoRan	Outperform Votes 1123 66.14%	Underperform Votes 575 33.86%
Southern Copper	Outperform Votes 394 55.73%	Underperform Votes 313 44.27%

Is FCX or SCCO more profitable?

Southern Copper has a net margin of 29.53% compared to Freeport-McMoRan's net margin of 7.42%. Southern Copper's return on equity of 40.27% beat Freeport-McMoRan's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Freeport-McMoRan	7.42%	7.50%	3.92%
Southern Copper	29.53%	40.27%	19.12%

Is FCX or SCCO a better dividend stock?

Freeport-McMoRan pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Southern Copper pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Freeport-McMoRan pays out 23.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southern Copper pays out 64.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Which has better valuation & earnings, FCX or SCCO?

Southern Copper has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Freeport-McMoRan. Southern Copper is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Freeport-McMoRan, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Freeport-McMoRan	$25.46B	2.43	$1.89B	$1.29	33.40
Southern Copper	$11.43B	7.05	$3.38B	$4.32	23.42

Summary

Freeport-McMoRan beats Southern Copper on 14 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.