Southern Copper downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley analyst Carlos De Alba downgraded Southern Copper to Equal Weight from Overweight with an unchanged $70 price target as part of a broader research note on Americas Metals & Mining. While the firm remains constructive over the long term on decarbonization/electrification trends that support demand for metals and challenging conditions to develop new supply, it prefers to "take chips off the table" as mining equities share prices are more adequately reflecting the China reopening. Southern Copper has outperformed its copper peers over the last three, six, and 12 months, but its risk-reward is now more balanced with the stock more adequately reflecting the company’s strong cash generation and consistent returns to shareholder, the analyst tells investors in a research note.