SQM slashed; Lucid a sell amid plummeting production numbers: 4 big analyst cuts

Investing.com — Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest analyst cuts you may have missed since yesterday: downgrades at Lucid Group, Gold Fields, ArcelorMittal, and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile.

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SQM cut to Underperform

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE:SQM) shares dropped nearly 3% premarket Wednesday after BofA Securities downgraded the company to Underperform from Neutral and cut its price target to $59.00 from $69.00.

The miner is expected to report earnings of $2.41 per share on a top line of $2.23 billion when it reports next month, down from $3.30 on $2.7B a year earlier.

Shares were changing hands at $57.75 premarket.

Lucid cut to Sell on Q3 production and delivery numbers

CFRA downgraded Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) to Sell from Hold on Tuesday and cut its price target to $4.00 from $7.00 following the company’s Q3 production and delivery numbers.

Lucid, which makes electric luxury sports cars, posted an almost 30% drop in production and only a slight increase in deliveries, even with notable discounts.

CFRA wrote that Lucid's Q3 data revealed production of 1,550 vehicles and deliveries totaling 1,457, noting that these numbers are concerning, especially when compared with the 2,173 units produced in Q2 and the slight increase in deliveries from the previous 1,404 units.

The analysts also highlighted that the recent release lacked comprehensive insights into the company's still-sluggish volumes, adding:

“While an equity offering and private placement completed in Q2 helped boost its liquidity position, we find LCID's cash burn rate highly alarming and see the company facing daunting headwinds for the foreseeable future from a combination of weak demand and ongoing pricing pressures."

According to the analysts, the initial enthusiasm reflected in reservation counts for various new EV models seems to be waning, prompting them to lower their rating to Sell.

Shares slipped more than 5% on Tuesday, and were ticking down another 0.8% to $4.96 in the premarket.

Two more downgrades

Morgan Stanley downgraded Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) to Underweight from Equalweight, as reported in real-time on InvestingPro.

BofA Securities downgraded ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) to Neutral from Buy. As a result, shares fell more than 2% pre-market today.

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