Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $22.00.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HL. Wall Street Zen upgraded Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 2nd. Roth Mkm restated a “sell” rating and set a $16.00 price target on shares of Hecla Mining in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Hecla Mining in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Hecla Mining from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Kurt Allen sold 52,219 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.91, for a total value of $1,144,118.29. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 216,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,746,604.31. This represents a 19.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP David C. Sienko sold 207,553 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.42, for a total transaction of $4,030,679.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 906,370 shares in the company, valued at $17,601,705.40. This represents a 18.63% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 426,679 shares of company stock valued at $7,678,773. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hecla Mining

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Hecla Mining by 13.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,349,059 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $863,324,000 after purchasing an additional 8,452,401 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 32.4% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 49,881,495 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $603,566,000 after buying an additional 12,197,740 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,485,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $417,278,000 after buying an additional 4,453,706 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 38.0% during the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 23,524,912 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $284,651,000 after buying an additional 6,472,566 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 14.7% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,118,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $120,509,000 after acquiring an additional 2,574,855 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Hecla Mining Price Performance

Hecla Mining stock opened at $22.49 on Friday. Hecla Mining has a 52-week low of $4.46 and a 52-week high of $34.17. The company has a market cap of $15.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.56 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $21.14 and its 200 day moving average is $14.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.01. Hecla Mining had a net margin of 16.35% and a return on equity of 7.87%. The firm had revenue of $409.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $315.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.03 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 67.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hecla Mining will post 0.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 24th were given a $0.0038 dividend. This represents a $0.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 24th. Hecla Mining’s dividend payout ratio is 3.23%.

About Hecla Mining

Hecla Mining Company, founded in 1891 and headquartered in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, is one of the oldest publicly traded precious metals companies in the United States. Originally established to develop the rich silver deposits of the Coeur d’Alene district, Hecla has evolved into a diversified mining enterprise focused on the exploration, development and production of silver and gold, with by-product credits from lead and zinc.

The company’s principal operations are located in North America and Latin America.