Liontrust Investment Partners LLP Makes New Investment in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Liontrust Investment Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 13,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $559,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 18.5% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 198,789 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,898,000 after buying an additional 31,066 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 53.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 358,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,249,000 after acquiring an additional 125,506 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 104.9% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 27,080 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $955,000 after acquiring an additional 13,865 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 20.4% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 20,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,545 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Saturna Capital Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 62.7% in the 2nd quarter. Saturna Capital Corp now owns 80,407 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,836,000 after acquiring an additional 31,000 shares during the last quarter. 12.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup cut shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $51.00 to $74.00 in a report on Friday, December 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Two equities research 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.63.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE SQM opened at $77.05 on Wednesday. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a 1 year low of $29.36 and a 1 year high of $86.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 3.27 and a quick ratio of 2.25. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $76.08 and a 200 day moving average of $61.31. The stock has a market cap of $22.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.58 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 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.