Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. Declares Special Dividend of $1.44 (NYSE:SQM)

Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) declared a special dividend on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of 1.435 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, September 21st. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.3%per year over the last three years. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a dividend payout ratio of 73.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Sociedad Quimica y Minera to earn $8.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.0%.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Down 1.0%

SQM traded down $0.81 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $79.62. 597,767 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,250,466. The company has a quick ratio of 2.01, a current ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $72.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $77.88. The stock has a market cap of $22.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.42, a PEG ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 0.98. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a 1-year low of $40.58 and a 1-year high of $98.00.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 14th. The basic materials company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 20.62%.Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s quarterly revenue was up 136.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Sociedad Quimica y Minera will post 7.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Sociedad Quimica y Minera

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA (NYSE: SQM) is a leading global producer of specialty chemicals and minerals headquartered in Santiago, Chile. The company focuses on the extraction and processing of key inputs for the agricultural, industrial and high‐tech sectors. Its core business activities include the mining of lithium, potassium and iodine, as well as the manufacture of value‐added products derived from these raw materials.

SQM’s product portfolio spans lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide used in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems; potassium chloride and potassium nitrate fertilizers designed for precision agriculture; and iodine and its derivatives for pharmaceutical, food and electronics applications.