SQM (SQM) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, SQM (SQM) closed at $94.04, marking a +0.86% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.03%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.15%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.39%.

Heading into today, shares of the chemicals company had lost 11.65% over the past month, lagging the Basic Materials sector's gain of 1.01% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.51% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from SQM as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, SQM is projected to report earnings of $3.34 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 802.7%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $2.66 billion, up 301.38% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $12.93 per share and revenue of $10.28 billion, which would represent changes of +530.73% and +258.98%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for SQM. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 1.65% higher. SQM is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Looking at its valuation, SQM is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 7.21. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 5.1, so we one might conclude that SQM is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that SQM has a PEG ratio of 0.49 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. SQM's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.59 as of yesterday's close.

The Fertilizers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 156, which puts it in the bottom 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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