Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. Declares Special Dividend of $0.12 (NYSE:SQM)

Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) declared a special dividend on Monday, December 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 30th will be given a dividend of 0.1236 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, January 5th. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 30th.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.3%per year over the last three years. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a payout ratio of 3.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Sociedad Quimica y Minera to earn $3.37 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 4.2%.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Price Performance

NYSE:SQM traded down $1.05 on Tuesday, hitting $69.02. The company had a trading volume of 462,548 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,331,137. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.69 and a beta of 0.99. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a 52 week low of $29.36 and a 52 week high of $72.56. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $58.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $47.01. The company has a current ratio of 2.82, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 18th. The basic materials company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.68 by ($0.06). Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 12.12% and a return on equity of 9.79%. The firm had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.46 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Sociedad Quimica y Minera will post -1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

About Sociedad Quimica y Minera

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.