Sociedad Quimica Y Minera de Chile S.A. ADR (NYSE: SQM) stock jumped 3.71% on Monday to $52.54 against a previous-day closing price of $50.66. With 2.05 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 1.54 million shares. During the session, the Specialty Chemicals company that operates in wider Basic Materials sector, reached to the highest price of $53.70 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $50.61. The 52-week range on SQM shows that it touched its highest point at $101.73 and its lowest point at $44.86 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $79.49. With its current market cap of 7.50 billion, SQM has annualized dividend of $4.98 while the current yield stands at 9.47%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.07.
Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of SQM was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 9.21%, but this was up by 1.64% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -19.28% while six-month performance fell -26.16%. The stock lost -42.02% in the past year, while it has lost -34.19% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for SQM yields 10.36 with Next year EPS estimates of 7.46. For the next quarter, that number is 2.10. This implies an EPS growth rate of -34.21% for this year and -17.10% for next year. EPS is expected to decline by -13.60% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 53.56%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 142.82 million SQM shares are outstanding with a float of 142.79 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 4.39 million, which was 1.54% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Mr. Ricardo Ramos Rodríguez as the firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Gerardo Illanes G. serves as its CFO & VP of Finance.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 37.33% of SQM’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 14.60% of SQM, in contrast to 13.29% held by mutual funds. As the largest shareholder in SQM with 1.76% of the stake, BlackRock Investment Management holds 2,509,540 shares worth 2,509,540. A second-largest stockholder of SQM, Lazard Asset Management LLC, holds 2,293,216 shares, controlling over 1.61% of the firm’s shares. abrdn Investments Ltd. is the third largest shareholder in SQM, holding 2,115,225 shares or 1.48% stake. With a 1.36% stake in SQM, the Global X Lithium & Battery Tech E is the largest stakeholder. A total of 1,935,757 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, which owns about 0.73% of SQM stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 1,042,654 shares valued at 50.46 million. BlackRock Global Funds – Future o holds 0.71% of the stake in SQM, owning 1,016,961 shares worth 49.22 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for SQM since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With SQM analysts setting a high price target of $136.00 and a low target of $58.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $79.49. Based on these targets, SQM could surge 158.85% to reach the target high and rise by 10.39% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 51.29% from current levels.
