Barings LLC Acquires Shares of 77,312 Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Barings LLC acquired a new stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 77,312 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,319,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 18.5% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 198,789 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,898,000 after acquiring an additional 31,066 shares during 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 valued at $14,249,000 after acquiring an additional 125,506 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 20.4% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 20,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,545 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 38.3% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 159,027 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,609,000 after acquiring an additional 44,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 3.0% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 124,575 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,394,000 after acquiring an additional 3,634 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Price Performance

SQM stock opened at $80.37 on Friday. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a 1 year low of $31.90 and a 1 year high of $98.00. The company has a market cap of $22.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.20, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $84.81 and a 200 day moving average of $77.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.76 and a quick ratio of 2.01.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, May 16th. The basic materials company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a net margin of 15.38% and a return on equity of 11.99%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a $1.0295 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.1%. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s dividend payout ratio is 92.98%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on SQM shares. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Zacks Research downgraded Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Sociedad Quimica y Minera from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $94.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One investment 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.50.

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.