Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) Short Interest Down 6.3% in January

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hecla Mining

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 4.3% during the third 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. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 5.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,865,241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $92,499,000 after purchasing an additional 711,676 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Hecla Mining by 7.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,718,551 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $44,813,000 after purchasing an additional 456,107 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Hecla Mining by 51.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,435,909 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,842,991 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Hecla Mining by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,481,761 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,223,000 after buying an additional 1,059,929 shares during the last quarter. 63.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Hecla Mining Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE HL traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $5.68. The stock had a trading volume of 19,710,461 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,639,048. Hecla Mining has a twelve month low of $3.33 and a twelve month high of $7.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $5.35 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.85. The firm has a market cap of $3.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -141.88 and a beta of 1.91.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $245.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $232.03 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.01) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hecla Mining will post 0.06 EPS for the current year.

Hecla Mining Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st were issued a $0.0138 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $0.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.97%. Hecla Mining’s payout ratio is currently -125.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.