Van ECK Associates Corp Cuts Stock Holdings in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM)

Van ECK Associates Corp lowered its position in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 37.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 665,655 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 405,196 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.23% of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile worth $40,085,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in SQM. abrdn plc grew its position in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 4.7% during the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,643,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $157,712,000 after buying an additional 119,695 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,992,151 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $120,387,000 after acquiring an additional 172,908 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 37.2% in the 3rd quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 1,747,264 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $104,259,000 after purchasing an additional 474,000 shares during the period. CI Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 5.3% in the third quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 1,523,519 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $90,908,000 after purchasing an additional 76,054 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 688.4% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,006,607 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $60,618,000 after purchasing an additional 878,933 shares during the period. 12.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SQM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $52.00 to $62.80 in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.18.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Price Performance

Shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile stock opened at $45.70 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a current ratio of 2.49. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. has a 52-week low of $38.50 and a 52-week high of $81.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $47.30 and a 200-day moving average of $49.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.48 and a beta of 1.07.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (NYSE:SQM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.51). The business had revenue of $1.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile had a return on equity of 37.86% and a net margin of 26.95%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.03 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of $0.2134 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $0.85 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile’s payout ratio is 18.30%.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Company Profile

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA produces and distributes specialty plant nutrients, iodine derivatives, lithium derivatives, potassium chloride and sulfate, industrial chemicals, and other products and services. The company offers specialty plant nutrients, including potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, sodium potassium nitrate, specialty blends, and other specialty fertilizers.