SQM (SQM) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

SQM (SQM) closed the most recent trading day at $71.47, moving +1.43% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.45% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.8%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.99%.

Coming into today, shares of the chemicals company had gained 9.8% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector gained 4.21%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.25%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from SQM as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect SQM to post earnings of $2.87 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 4.65%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $2.38 billion, down 8.49% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $12.45 per share and revenue of $10.21 billion, which would represent changes of -8.99% and -4.63%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. SQM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, SQM is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 5.66. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.41.

Investors should also note that SQM has a PEG ratio of 0.38 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Fertilizers stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.08 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Fertilizers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 237, putting it in the bottom 6% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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