WP Advisors LLC Takes $229,000 Position in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM)

WP Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 3,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 1.8% during the first quarter. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,123 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $610,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC increased its stake in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 3.2% in the third quarter. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 5,903 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $352,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its stake in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 7.6% in the second quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 2,668 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $223,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,930 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $75,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. 12.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $64.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. TheStreet lowered shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.98.

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SQM traded down $0.82 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $44.99. 1,463,877 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 940,945. The company has a quick ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 2.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.84. Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. has a 1-year low of $38.50 and a 1-year high of $81.50. The firm has a market cap of $12.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.38 and a beta of 1.07.

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

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile 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.