Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $23.8214.

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Hecla Mining from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Hecla Mining to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Hecla Mining from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Hecla Mining from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th.

Hecla Mining Stock Up 2.4%

HL opened at $20.89 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $16.29 and a 200 day moving average of $18.22. The stock has a market cap of $14.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.62 and a beta of 1.32. Hecla Mining has a 52-week low of $7.78 and a 52-week high of $34.17.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $333.85 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $368.75 million. Hecla Mining had a return on equity of 18.91% and a net margin of 20.84%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.09 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Hecla Mining will post 0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.0038 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 26th. This represents a $0.01 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Hecla Mining’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.04%.

Institutional Trading of Hecla Mining

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HL. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Hecla Mining in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,085,779,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Hecla Mining by 15.3% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 38,174,114 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $589,027,000 after buying an additional 5,053,624 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Hecla Mining by 14.8% in the third 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. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in 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 worth $120,509,000 after buying an additional 2,574,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in Hecla Mining by 40.6% during the second 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 buying an additional 4,928,130 shares during the period. 63.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.