Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE:SCCO) informed its shareholders of a payment of a quarterly dividend per ordinary share.
A quarterly dividend of 30 cents will be paid to the holders of the stock on May 23. Investors who are interested must be on the company’s record no later than May 9. The ex-dividend date is May 8.
Copper futures were up 24% to $3.127 per pound on Thursday. On the tailwind of the rising commodity, Southern Copper is up-trending on the New York Stock Exchange. For the 52-weeks through April 19, Southern Copper has climbed 62% to $57.08 per common share.
The stock is now trading plainly above the 200, 100 and 50-SMA lines. The stock is only $1 below the 52-week high of $58.09. The 52-week low is $32.63. The Relative Strength Indicator (14 days) is 62.95.
The recommendation rating is 3.4 out of a total of 5. As of April, two of 12 analysts suggest buying the stock, five recommended holding the stock and one analyst thinks that now is the time to dispose of the stock. There are also four analysts who foresee an underperforming stock over the next 52-weeks of trading.
The average target price is $47.25 per share. That is a 17.2% stock depreciation from the current market valuation. The average target price is a mean of 10 analysts, who were surveyed on the price target. The estimates range between a low of $39 and a high of $57 per share price target.
GuruFocus provides readers with other financial indicators. Southern Copper has a price-book ratio of 7.19 times, which is higher than the industry average ratio of 2.06, and an EV-to-Ebitda ratio of 14.97 times versus an industry median of 9.9.
Over the last 12 months, Southern Copper reported an Ebitda margin of 49.3% in total revenue towards an industry median of 25% when copper futures averaged $2.81 per pound.
With the base metal averaging $3.15 per pound in the first quarter, up nearly 19% from the analogous quarter of 2017, the miner is expected to have closed the first three months of fiscal 2018 with a higher Ebitda margin on total revenues. Total revenues are projected at $1.9 billion, an increase of 20% year-over-year).
The top-line is predicted to have dropped adjusted earnings of 62 cents in the quarter. The forecast is a mean of four estimates of 59 to 68 cents and a 55% growth from 2017.
For full fiscal 2018, revenues are predicted at $7.96 billion, a 19.60% increase from full fiscal 2017 while earnings are forecasted at $2.72 per share.
Those targets of higher sales, margins and earnings are not ‘chasing a chimaera’ since the company is taking action on expansion, cost reduction and capital programs that put Southern Copper Corp in a great position to benefit from the favourable price environment.
In 2018, the copper miner will conclude the execution of the Peruvian Toquepala expansion project, from which Southern Copper Corp expects to add 100,000 tons of the red metal to the company’s total annual production. The company targets to reach an annual copper production of one million tons.
Thanks to GuruFocus, we can have an idea about the trend in the company’s top and bottom lines of yearly income statement over the last 10 years:
SCCO data by GuruFocus.com
Southern Copper is a Mexican mining company engaged through mines and facilities that are in South America, Peru and Mexico in the production of copper and molybdenum concentrates, in smelting and refining operations to produce blister, anode copper from concentrates and copper cathodes. The company also produces zinc and silver. However, the sale of the red metal accounts for approximately 85% of the Southern Copper’s total revenue.
Over the last five fiscal years, the company saw the annual production of copper increasing at an average yearly 10.8% rate to 913,066 tons of concentrate in 2017.
The stock in Southern Copper, which is composed by 773.03 million shares outstanding, has a market capitalization of $44.12 billion.
Among the top institutional holders, Blackrock Inc. is the most prominent with 0.92% of the company’s shares outstanding. The holding is as of Dec. 30.
Operating and financial results for the fourth-quarter of fiscal 2018 are estimated to be published on May 3.
(Disclosure: I have no positions neither in Southern Copper Corp nor in copper futures.)
