Schroder Investment Management Group Buys 208,147 Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 73.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 491,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 208,147 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group owned 0.17% of Sociedad Quimica y Minera worth $21,113,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 6,354 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $224,000 after acquiring an additional 335 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 10.7% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,719 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $289,000 after purchasing an additional 652 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd raised its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 11.0% in the third quarter. R Squared Ltd now owns 7,015 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 695 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 10.6% in the second quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 7,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $275,000 after purchasing an additional 749 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MGO One Seven LLC lifted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 4.7% during the third quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 16,677 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $717,000 after purchasing an additional 754 shares during the period. 12.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group set a $79.00 price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $51.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.63.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Performance

Sociedad Quimica y Minera stock opened at $75.55 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 3.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market cap of $21.58 billion, a PE ratio of 36.85 and a beta of 0.99. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a 12-month low of $29.36 and a 12-month high of $86.13. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $75.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.48.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a return on equity of 9.69% and a net margin of 12.85%.The firm’s revenue was up 23.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. will post -1.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 5th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 30th were paid a $0.1236 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 30th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.85%.

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.