Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.01

Southern Copper Co. (NYSE:SCCO) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 19th, Zacks reports. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th.

Southern Copper has increased its dividend by an average of 38.7% annually over the last three years. Southern Copper has a dividend payout ratio of 68.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Performance

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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SCCO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Southern Copper from $123.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. CICC Research started coverage on shares of Southern Copper in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Southern Copper from $61.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Scotiabank raised their price objective on Southern Copper from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Southern Copper from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $91.00 to $130.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a buy 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 $90.50.

Insider Transactions at Southern Copper

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

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.