Southern Copper Co. (SCCO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.01 on May 23rd

Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 19th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.01 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th.

Southern Copper has raised its dividend by an average of 38.7% annually over the last three years. Southern Copper has a payout ratio of 68.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Southern Copper to earn $4.77 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.1%.

Southern Copper Price Performance

Shares of SCCO opened at $115.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 3.31 and a quick ratio of 2.46. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $103.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $87.04. Southern Copper has a 1-year low of $64.66 and a 1-year high of $121.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.22 billion, a PE ratio of 37.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.27.

Southern Copper (NYSE:SCCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $2.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Southern Copper had a return on equity of 30.44% and a net margin of 24.20%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Southern Copper will post 4.01 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on SCCO. CICC Research assumed coverage on Southern Copper in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $91.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. StockNews.com raised Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. HSBC cut Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Southern Copper from $63.50 to $61.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Southern Copper news, Director Bonilla Luis Miguel Palomino sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total transaction of $35,550.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,614 shares in the company, valued at $546,759. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 600 shares of company stock worth $63,430. Company insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

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.