Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) Receives $75.50 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have given a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $75.50.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on SQM shares. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. CLSA upgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $94.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 25th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sociedad Quimica y Minera

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SQM. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 18.5% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 198,789 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,898,000 after purchasing an additional 31,066 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 53.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 358,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,249,000 after purchasing an additional 125,506 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 20.4% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 20,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,545 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 38.3% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 159,027 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,609,000 after purchasing an additional 44,062 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 3.0% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 124,575 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,394,000 after purchasing an additional 3,634 shares during the period. 12.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SQM opened at $84.09 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a PE ratio of 29.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.22 and a beta of 0.95. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a 12 month low of $31.90 and a 12 month high of $98.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.76 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.08.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, May 16th. The basic materials company reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 11.99%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Sociedad Quimica y Minera will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 26th. Investors of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a $1.0295 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s payout ratio is presently 92.98%.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Company Profile

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.