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

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Sunday.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on SQM. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $100.00 price target on Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. CLSA raised Sociedad Quimica y Minera to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Zacks Research cut Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.50.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Price Performance

Shares of SQM traded down $0.94 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $73.15. The stock had a trading volume of 686,512 shares, compared to its average volume of 908,739. The firm has a market cap of $20.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.67, a PEG ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 0.97. Sociedad Quimica y Minera has a 12 month low of $35.67 and a 12 month high of $98.00. The business has a fifty day moving average of $80.59 and a 200 day moving average of $78.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.76.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, May 16th. The basic materials company reported $1.28 EPS for the quarter. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 11.99%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter. Equities analysts predict that Sociedad Quimica y Minera will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Sociedad Quimica y Minera

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,106,810 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $144,949,000 after purchasing an additional 195,142 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 24.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,089,638 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $143,767,000 after purchasing an additional 413,246 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 4.7% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 1,529,281 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $65,729,000 after buying an additional 69,177 shares in the last quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC lifted its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 18.7% in the fourth quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 1,462,794 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $100,640,000 after buying an additional 230,132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 87.4% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,239,588 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,278,000 after buying an additional 578,175 shares during the last quarter. 12.41% of the stock is currently 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.