ABN Amro Investment Solutions Purchases 123,700 Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

ABN Amro Investment Solutions boosted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 87.1% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 265,677 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 123,700 shares during the quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions’ holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera were worth $21,504,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Royal Bank of Canada grew 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 valued at $7,898,000 after purchasing an additional 31,066 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 53.8% in 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 buying an additional 125,506 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 20.4% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 20,886 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $737,000 after buying an additional 3,545 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in 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 worth $5,609,000 after buying an additional 44,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in 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 worth $4,394,000 after buying an additional 3,634 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Price Performance

Sociedad Quimica y Minera stock opened at $68.71 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $77.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.80. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a one year low of $35.67 and a one year high of $98.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 2.76 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market cap of $19.63 billion, a PE ratio of 24.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.19 and a beta of 0.97.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last released its earnings results on Saturday, May 16th. The basic materials company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 15.38%.The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts expect that Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SQM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $94.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Bank of America raised their target price 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. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen raised Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, July 12th. Finally, CLSA upgraded Sociedad Quimica y Minera to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $74.58.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera 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.