Hecla Mining Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:HL)

by · The Markets Daily

Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL – Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors bought 51,174 call options on the company. This is an increase of 42% compared to the typical volume of 36,160 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Roth Capital set a $8.75 price objective on Hecla Mining and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Hecla Mining in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $15.00 price target on the stock. CIBC boosted their price objective on Hecla Mining from $15.00 to $16.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Hecla Mining in a research note on Monday. Finally, HC Wainwright lifted their price target on shares of Hecla Mining from $12.50 to $16.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Hecla Mining has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.22.

Read Our Latest Research Report on HL

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hecla Mining news, CFO Russell Douglas Lawlar sold 18,535 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.02, for a total value of $278,395.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 directly owned 73,200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $826,428. This represents a 16.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 181,379 shares of company stock worth $2,667,365 over the last quarter. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 23.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 59,086 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 11,174 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Hecla Mining by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,830,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $349,340,000 after buying an additional 1,437,895 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Hecla Mining by 62.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,442,667 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $24,701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,705,994 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Hecla Mining in the first quarter valued at $18,410,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Hecla Mining by 8.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 28,827,696 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $160,285,000 after acquiring an additional 2,306,239 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Hecla Mining Stock Up 12.2%

Shares of NYSE HL traded up $2.10 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $19.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 30,456,624 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,551,352. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.80. The company has a current ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.23 and a beta of 1.36. Hecla Mining has a fifty-two week low of $4.46 and a fifty-two week high of $19.67.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $409.54 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $315.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.03 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 67.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Hecla Mining will post 0.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Hecla Mining Dividend Announcement

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

About Hecla Mining

(Get Free Report)

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.

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