Schroder Investment Management Group Purchases 208,147 Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 73.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 491,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 208,147 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera were worth $21,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 3,168,322 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $140,040,000 after purchasing an additional 187,767 shares in the last quarter. Kopernik Global Investors LLC raised its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 20.9% in the second quarter. Kopernik Global Investors LLC now owns 1,842,113 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $64,971,000 after purchasing an additional 318,445 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 5.5% during the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 1,460,104 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,498,000 after purchasing an additional 76,378 shares in the last quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 112.4% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, RWC Asset Management LLP grew its holdings in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 369.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 876,754 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SQM has been the subject of several recent research reports. Zacks Research raised Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research report on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $79.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.63.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Performance

Shares of SQM stock opened at $75.55 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $75.81 and a 200-day moving average of $60.48. The company has a market cap of $21.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 3.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a 52 week low of $29.36 and a 52 week high of $86.13.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 12.85% and a return on equity of 9.69%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast 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 disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 5th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 30th were issued a dividend of $0.1236 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 30th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s payout ratio is currently 5.85%.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera 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.