Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) saw a significant drop in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 15,720,000 shares, a drop of 6.3% from the December 15th total of 16,780,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,890,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Hecla Mining from $8.50 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com lowered Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded Hecla Mining from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.94.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 54,680,051 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $391,510,000 after buying an additional 2,238,559 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Hecla Mining by 0.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 34,644,620 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $168,027,000 after purchasing an additional 146,689 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 5.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,865,241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $92,499,000 after purchasing an additional 711,676 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 7.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,718,551 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $44,813,000 after purchasing an additional 456,107 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 51.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,435,909 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,842,991 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Hecla Mining Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of HL traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $5.39. The stock had a trading volume of 15,526,540 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,740,050. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $5.85. Hecla Mining has a 12 month low of $3.33 and a 12 month high of $7.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -134.68 and a beta of 1.91.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. Hecla Mining had a positive return on equity of 0.75% and a negative net margin of 2.27%. The firm had revenue of $245.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $232.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.01) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Hecla Mining will post 0.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st were given a dividend of $0.0138 per share. This represents a $0.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 21st. Hecla Mining’s payout ratio is -125.00%.

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.