Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on SQM. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $64.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $94.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $105.00 to $93.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, CLSA raised shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.27.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Performance

Shares of SQM opened at $82.40 on Friday. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a 52-week low of $40.58 and a 52-week high of $98.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $72.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 0.98.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 19th. The basic materials company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.28. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a return on equity of 19.08% and a net margin of 20.62%.The business had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 136.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Sociedad Quimica y Minera will post 7.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Sociedad Quimica y Minera

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SQM. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the second quarter valued at about $2,756,000. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,576,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the 2nd quarter valued at about $8,869,000. PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab raised its holdings in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 11.6% during the 2nd quarter. PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab now owns 55,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,072,000 after buying an additional 5,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC purchased a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the 1st quarter valued at about $407,000. 12.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Company 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.