Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $82.56

Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $82.56.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SQM. Wall Street Zen upgraded Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 4th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $64.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $93.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $97.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 27th.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Price Performance

NYSE:SQM opened at $60.52 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a 52 week low of $41.94 and a 52 week high of $98.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $71.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $76.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.29 billion, a PE ratio of 12.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.05.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 14th. The basic materials company reported $2.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.28. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 20.62% and a return on equity of 18.20%. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 136.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Sociedad Quimica y Minera will post 7.30 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th were paid a $1.4350 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 8th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s payout ratio is presently 34.85%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sociedad Quimica y Minera

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Castle Hook Partners LP acquired a new position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the 4th quarter valued at about $69,257,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 15.0% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 640,499 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,842,000 after purchasing an additional 83,738 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the first quarter valued at approximately $50,183,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 602.0% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 502,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,671,000 after purchasing an additional 430,900 shares during the period. Finally, ABN Amro Investment Solutions boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 87.1% in the first quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions now owns 265,677 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,504,000 after purchasing an additional 123,700 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

About Sociedad Quimica y Minera

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA (NYSE: SQM) is a Chile-based mining and chemicals company that produces lithium, iodine, specialty plant nutrients and industrial chemicals. Its operations are primarily located in northern Chile, where the company extracts mineral resources from the Salar de Atacama and other deposits.

SQM is one of the world’s significant producers of lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, which are used in rechargeable batteries, energy-storage systems, electric vehicles and other industrial applications.