Barometer Capital Management Inc. Purchases 7,400 Shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM

Barometer Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) by 80.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,600 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,400 shares during the quarter. Barometer Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera were worth $713,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 31,066 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 125,506 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 22.6% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 123,853 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,368,000 after buying an additional 22,870 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 6,354 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $224,000 after buying an additional 335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 118,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,162,000 after buying an additional 6,087 shares in the last quarter. 12.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Citigroup downgraded Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $51.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Friday, December 12th. UBS Group set a $79.00 price target on Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up from $45.00) on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.63.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Price Performance

Shares of SQM opened at $77.79 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $75.68 and its 200-day moving average is $60.37. 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 market capitalization of $22.22 billion, a PE ratio of 37.94 and a beta of 0.99. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $29.36 and a fifty-two week high of $86.13.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a return on equity of 9.69% and a net margin of 12.85%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. will post -1.31 EPS for the current year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 30th were paid a dividend of $0.1236 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 30th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.