Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM) Declares $0.21 Quarterly Dividend

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, April 29th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.2134 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, May 28th. This represents a $0.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile has raised its dividend by an average of 83.1% annually over the last three years.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Stock Up 7.0 %

Shares of SQM traded up $3.07 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $47.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,502,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,435,797. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.49 and a quick ratio of 1.74. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile has a 12-month low of $38.50 and a 12-month high of $81.50. The stock has a market cap of $13.49 billion, a PE ratio of 6.68 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50 day moving average is $47.23 and its 200 day moving average is $49.39.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (NYSE:SQM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.51). The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile had a return on equity of 37.86% and a net margin of 26.95%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $4.03 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on SQM. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of 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. TheStreet downgraded shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $62.80 in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.18.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Company Profile

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.