Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. SQM logged earnings of 42 cents per share in fourth-quarter 2024, down from 71 cents per share registered in the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share also fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 52 cents.

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SQM generated revenues of $1,073.8 million in the quarter, down around 18% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,010 million. 

SQM’s Segment Highlights

Revenues from the Lithium and Derivatives segment fell around 33% year over year to $532 million in the reported quarter. Despite a roughly 13% increase in lithium sales volumes, the downside was caused by lower prices.

The Specialty Plant Nutrients (SPN) segment generated revenues of $224.6 million, up around 0.4% year over year. This upside was driven by higher sales volumes, partly masked by lower prices.

The Iodine and Derivatives segment posted revenues of $225.6 million, up around 3% from the prior year’s levels, benefiting from higher prices.

Revenues from the Potassium business climbed around 30% year over year to $65.9 million on higher sales volumes.

The Industrial Chemicals unit recorded sales of $17.2 million, down roughly 9% year over year. The downside was due to significantly lower sales volumes despite higher prices.

SQM’s FY24 Results

Loss (as reported) for full-year 2024 was $1.42 per share. This is in contrast with earnings of $7.05 a year ago.  Sales fell around 39% year over year to roughly $4,528.8 million. 

SQM’s Financials

The company’s cash and cash equivalents were $1,377.9 million at the end of 2024, up around 32% year over year. Long-term debt was $3,600.6 million, up roughly 12% from the prior year.

SQM’s Outlook

SQM expects a roughly 15% increase in sales volumes in the Lithium and Derivatives unit in 2025 compared to 2024, including sales of around 10,000 metric tons of LCE from the Mt. Holland operation. Average realized prices are projected to be lower year over year in 2025.

For the SPN unit, the company expects an increase in sales volumes in 2025, in line with or slightly above the expected market growth of around 4-5%. 

For the Iodine and Derivatives segment, SQM expects market demand to stabilize, with market growth of roughly 2% in 2025 from the prior year. Sales volumes are forecast to remain in line with 2024 levels. 

SQM sees a reduction of around 50% in potassium sales volumes in 2025 due to lower production in the Salar de Atacama.

The company expects capital expenditure for 2025 to be roughly $1.1 billion.

SQM Stock’s Price Performance

SQM’s shares have lost 14.7% over a year compared with the Zacks Fertilizers industry’s decline of 12.8%.

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SQM’s Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

SQM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked stocks in the Basic Materials space are Gold Royalty Corp. GROY, Orla Mining Ltd. ORLA and i-80 Gold Corp. IAUX, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Gold Royalty is slated to release fourth-quarter results on March 19. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GROY’s fourth-quarter is pegged at a loss of a penny per share. GROY beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters while missing once, with the average earnings surprise being 125%. GROY has gained around 16% so far this year.

Orla Mining is slated to report fourth-quarter results on March 18. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter earnings is pegged at 7 cents. ORLA beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters while missing once and meeting on the other occasion, with the average earnings surprise being 97.9%. GROY has rallied roughly 33% year to date. 

i-80 Gold is expected to release fourth-quarter results on March 11. IAUX's shares have rallied roughly 53% year to date.

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