Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $63.78.

SQM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $54.50 to $46.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Bank of America dropped their target price on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $48.00 to $47.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $70.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $52.00 to $62.80 in a research report on Monday, April 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile during the 1st quarter worth approximately $34,000. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 40.1% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 790 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the period. Accent Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile during the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 133.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 830 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 6,315.8% during the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 1,219 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the period. 12.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE:SQM opened at $40.56 on Wednesday. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile has a 1-year low of $38.50 and a 1-year high of $81.50. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $45.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $47.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.34, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.18, a PEG ratio of 15.38 and a beta of 1.05.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (NYSE:SQM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 23rd. The basic materials company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.72) by $2.52. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.06 billion. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile had a return on equity of 30.74% and a net margin of 6.25%. On average, equities analysts expect that Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th were paid a $0.2134 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $0.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile’s dividend payout ratio is 41.01%.

About Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA produces and distributes specialty plant nutrients, iodine derivatives, lithium derivatives, potassium chloride and sulfate, industrial chemicals, and other products and services. The company offers specialty plant nutrients, including potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, sodium potassium nitrate, specialty blends, and other specialty fertilizers.