New York State Common Retirement Fund Purchases 10,359 Shares of Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its position in Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO – Get Rating) by 5.0% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 217,660 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 10,359 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Southern Copper were worth $16,520,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Copper during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA bought a new stake in shares of Southern Copper during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Sawyer & Company Inc acquired a new position in Southern Copper in the 1st quarter valued at about $43,000. Wahed Invest LLC bought a new position in Southern Copper in the 4th quarter valued at about $62,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Southern Copper during the fourth quarter worth approximately $79,000. 6.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup lowered Southern Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $70.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Southern Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $61.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 19th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Southern Copper from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Southern Copper from $66.00 to $52.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.00.

Southern Copper Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of SCCO opened at $47.45 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.64. The company has a market cap of $36.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.12. Southern Copper Co. has a one year low of $44.70 and a one year high of $79.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 3.29 and a quick ratio of 2.58.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 3rd. The basic materials company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.01. Southern Copper had a return on equity of 36.17% and a net margin of 27.59%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.68 billion. Research analysts forecast that Southern Copper Co. will post 3.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Southern Copper Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 11th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 10th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.32%. Southern Copper’s payout ratio is currently 132.28%.

About Southern Copper

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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 and lead.