Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (SQM) - What Are Researchers Thinking About This Stock?

Key Points

• Analysts have a consensus “Hold” rating on SQM: of 13 firms, five rate it Buy, one Strong Buy, five Hold, and two Sell. The average 12-month price target is $82.
• Recent analyst actions were mixed: Wall Street Zen upgraded SQM to Strong Buy, while Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan cut their price targets; Scotiabank raised its target to $104.
• SQM beat quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting EPS of $2.31 versus $2.03 expected and revenue of $2.47 billion versus $2.24 billion; revenue rose 136.7% year over year.

Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM - Get Free Report) have received an average recommendation of "Hold" from the thirteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $82.00.

Several research firms recently weighed in on SQM. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Sunday, October 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $94.00 to $81.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $94.00 to $88.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $93.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sociedad Quimica y Minera

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 65.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 621 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the third quarter worth about $46,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 43.2% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 822 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 59.5% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 839 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the second quarter valued at approximately $102,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.41% of the company's stock.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Up 7.1%

SQM stock opened at $57.54 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $16.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $66.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $75.13. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a 1-year low of $46.15 and a 1-year high of $98.00.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 14th. The basic materials company reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a return on equity of 18.20% and a net margin of 20.62%. The business's revenue was up 136.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.79 EPS. Analysts expect that Sociedad Quimica y Minera will post 7.45 EPS for the current year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 21st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th were issued a $1.4350 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 8th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera's payout ratio is 34.85%.

About Sociedad Quimica y Minera

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA NYSE: SQM, commonly known as SQM, is a Chilean chemical and mining company headquartered in Santiago. Founded in 1968, the company develops and produces specialty chemicals and plant nutrients from mineral resources in northern Chile.

SQM is one of the world's major producers of lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, which are used in rechargeable batteries and other industrial applications. The company also produces iodine and iodine derivatives, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, industrial chemicals, and specialty plant nutrition products.

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