Eschler Asset Management LLP Invests $508,000 in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Eschler Asset Management LLP acquired a new stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,808 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $508,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SQM. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 118,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,162,000 after purchasing an additional 6,087 shares during the period. Integrated Quantitative Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the second quarter worth $1,678,000. Boston Common Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the third quarter worth $2,767,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 33.4% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 71,429 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,070,000 after buying an additional 17,869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the third quarter valued at $729,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SQM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Wall Street Zen raised Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Monday, December 29th. Clarkson Capital restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $51.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.63.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Trading Down 2.9%

NYSE SQM 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.81 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $60.48. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a twelve month low of $29.36 and a twelve month high of $86.13. The company has a market capitalization of $21.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.85 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 5th. Shareholders 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 currently 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.