Robeco Schweiz AG Sells 366,500 Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Robeco Schweiz AG decreased its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 33.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 741,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 366,500 shares during the period. Robeco Schweiz AG owned 0.26% of Sociedad Quimica y Minera worth $31,865,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. RWC Asset Management LLP lifted its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 369.9% in the third quarter. RWC Asset Management LLP now owns 1,113,807 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,871,000 after buying an additional 876,754 shares during the last quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC grew its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 112.4% in the 3rd quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 1,232,662 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,980,000 after purchasing an additional 652,257 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 16,677 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $717,000 after buying an additional 754 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 33.4% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 71,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,070,000 after acquiring an additional 17,869 shares during the period. Finally, Perpetual Ltd bought a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the third quarter valued at $3,412,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SQM. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $88.00 in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup lowered Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $50.00 price target (down previously from $53.00) on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group set a $79.00 price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.41.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Up 4.1%

NYSE:SQM opened at $80.93 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 2.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a 12-month low of $29.36 and a 12-month high of $81.60. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $50.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.22 and a beta of 0.98.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 18th. The basic materials company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 12.12% and a return on equity of 9.79%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. will post -1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 30th were given a dividend of $0.1236 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 30th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.56%.

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.