Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) Trading Down 3.3% on Analyst Downgrade

Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL)’s share price traded down 3.3% during mid-day trading on Friday after Roth Capital downgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a sell rating. Roth Capital now has a $8.75 price target on the stock. Hecla Mining traded as low as $11.71 and last traded at $11.67. 3,571,274 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 22,288,002 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.06.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on HL. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Hecla Mining from $6.00 to $6.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. National Bank Financial raised shares of Hecla Mining to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Hecla Mining in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. HC Wainwright lifted their target price on shares of Hecla Mining from $11.50 to $12.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $7.75.

Insider Activity at Hecla Mining

In other news, VP Stuart Maurice Absolom sold 14,472 shares of Hecla Mining stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.29, for a total transaction of $163,388.88. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 73,200 shares in the company, valued at $826,428. The trade was a 16.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HL. Pale Fire Capital SE purchased a new position in shares of Hecla Mining during the 1st quarter worth $41,360,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 40.6% during the 2nd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 17,052,346 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $102,144,000 after acquiring an additional 4,928,130 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hecla Mining during the 1st quarter worth $18,410,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 869.3% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 3,274,065 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $18,204,000 after acquiring an additional 2,936,288 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 14.7% during the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,118,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $120,509,000 after acquiring an additional 2,574,855 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Hecla Mining Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $7.97 billion, a PE ratio of 74.33 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $9.00 and its 200-day moving average is $6.81. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $304.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $248.93 million. Hecla Mining had a net margin of 9.55% and a return on equity of 5.51%. Hecla Mining’s revenue was up 23.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.02 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Hecla Mining Company will post 0.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Hecla Mining Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 4th. Investors of record on Friday, August 22nd were issued a $0.0038 dividend. This represents a $0.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 22nd. Hecla Mining’s payout ratio is 6.25%.

Hecla Mining Company Profile

Hecla Mining Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides precious and base metal properties in the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, and China. The company mines for silver, gold, lead, and zinc concentrates, as well as carbon material containing silver and gold for custom smelters, metal traders, and third-party processors; and doré containing silver and gold.