How much a stock's price changes over time is important for most investors, since price performance can both impact your investment portfolio and help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Southern Copper (SCCO) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to SCCO for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Southern Copper's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Southern Copper's main business drivers.

Phoenix, AZ-based Southern Copper Corporation engages in mining, exploring, smelting, and refining copper and other minerals. The company conducts exploration activities in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.

Southern Copper has the largest copper reserves in the industry and operates high-quality, world-class assets in investment grade countries, such as Mexico and Peru.

Southern Copper reports results under three reportable segments. Each consist of a groups of mines with similar economic characteristics, type of products, processes and support facilities, regulatory environments as well as employee bargaining contracts.Peruvian operations (around 36% of the company's revenues) includes the Toquepala and Cuajone mine complexes and the smelting and refining plants, industrial railroad and port facilities that service both mines. The Peruvian operations produce copper, with significant by-product production of molybdenum, silver and other materials.Mexican Open-Pit (58% of revenues) includes La Caridad and Buenavista mine complexes, the smelting and refining plants and support facilities, which service both mines. The Mexican open pit operations produce copper, with significant by-product production of molybdenum, silver and other materials.Mexican underground operations (6% of revenues) (IMMSA unit) includes five underground mines that produce zinc, lead, copper, silver and gold, a coal mine which produces coal and coke, and several industrial processing facilities for zinc, copper and silver.

The geographic breakdown of the company’s sales is as follows – Americas (50% of revenues), Europe (32%) and Asia (18%).Approximately 80% of the company’s revenue come from the sale of copper, 6% from molybdenum and 10% from silver and zinc.

Bottom Line

While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Southern Copper ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in October 2014 would be worth $3,994.35, or a gain of 299.44%, as of October 17, 2024, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 213.65% and gold's return of 107.71% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for SCCO.

Southern Copper expects copper production to be up 6% year over year and reach 963,000 tons in 2024 driven by the Pilares project running at full capacity and the Buenavista zinc concentrator ramp-up. However, the downtrend in copper prices due to weak demand in China and contraction in the manufacturing sector seen so far this year is concerning. The company has been witnessing higher labor costs, which along with ongoing inflation for repair materials and operating materials, are anticipated to hurt Southern Copper’s margins. The company’s cost-control measures are expected to somewhat offset this impact. The long-term prospects for copper remain positive, buoyed by U.S. infrastructure investment and global clean energy transition. With substantial copper reserves and strategic growth investments, the company is positioned for growth.

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 11.69%, and there have been 3 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2024 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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