Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Trims Stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lowered its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,946,264 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 54,426 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera were worth $83,650,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State of Wyoming boosted its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 96.1% during the third quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 2,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 1,010 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 57.2% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $133,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096 shares during the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in the 3rd quarter valued at about $139,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the 2nd quarter valued at about $146,000. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the third quarter worth about $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on SQM shares. UBS Group set a $79.00 target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $63.00 price target (up from $45.00) on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup cut shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $51.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research note on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sociedad Quimica y Minera currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.63.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE SQM opened at $70.44 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.36 and a beta of 0.99. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a one year low of $29.36 and a one year high of $86.13. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 3.27 and a quick ratio of 1.88.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 23.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, 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 firm also recently declared 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 payout ratio is currently 5.85%.

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.