Earnest Partners LLC Grows Position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 81.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,911,668 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 860,984 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC owned about 0.67% of Sociedad Quimica y Minera worth $82,163,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 6.3% during the third quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC now owns 3,168,322 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $140,040,000 after buying an additional 187,767 shares during the last quarter. Kopernik Global Investors LLC raised its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 20.9% in the 2nd quarter. Kopernik Global Investors LLC now owns 1,842,113 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $64,971,000 after acquiring an additional 318,445 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 62.4% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,676,392 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $72,051,000 after acquiring an additional 644,129 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 1,460,104 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,498,000 after acquiring an additional 76,378 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 87.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,239,588 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,278,000 after purchasing an additional 578,175 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on SQM shares. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. UBS Group set a $79.00 target price on Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $63.00 price objective (up from $45.00) on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sociedad Quimica y Minera currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.63.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SQM opened at $74.58 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.30 billion, a PE ratio of 36.38 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 2.25 and a current ratio of 3.27. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $75.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.88. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a 1 year low of $29.36 and a 1 year high of $86.13.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.64 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.24 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 12.85% and a return on equity of 9.69%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. On average, research analysts predict 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 firm also recently announced 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 was Tuesday, December 30th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.