VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Invests $2.03 Million in Hecla Mining Company $HL

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 105,850 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,031,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of HL. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 20.9% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,285,345 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $23,827,000 after buying an additional 739,360 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 24.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,959,276 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,894,000 after buying an additional 380,448 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 10.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 65,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $393,000 after buying an additional 6,450 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 71.6% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 78,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $435,000 after buying an additional 32,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 153,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $922,000 after buying an additional 2,793 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Hecla Mining from $16.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Roth Mkm set a $13.00 target price on shares of Hecla Mining in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. HC Wainwright lowered their price target on shares of Hecla Mining from $36.50 to $26.75 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Hecla Mining from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Hecla Mining from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hecla Mining presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.25.

Hecla Mining Price Performance

HL stock opened at $17.64 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.53, a current ratio of 4.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Hecla Mining Company has a 12 month low of $4.71 and a 12 month high of $34.17. The firm has a market cap of $11.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.03 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $19.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.63.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.03). Hecla Mining had a net margin of 17.41% and a return on equity of 16.89%. The firm had revenue of $411.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $407.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.04 earnings per share. Hecla Mining’s quarterly revenue was up 57.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Hecla Mining Company will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 22nd will be issued a $0.0038 dividend. This represents a $0.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 22nd. Hecla Mining’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2.44%.

Hecla Mining Company Profile

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.