Legal & General Group Plc Acquires New Position in Hecla Mining Company $HL

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 882,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,621,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 74.3% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 631 shares during the period. Sittner & Nelson LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hecla Mining during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Rothschild Investment LLC raised its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 93.5% during the 4th quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 1,616 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 781 shares during the period. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new position in shares of Hecla Mining during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 134.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 957 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on HL shares. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Hecla Mining in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $22.00 price target for the company. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Hecla Mining from $25.00 to $21.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. HC Wainwright dropped their price objective on Hecla Mining from $36.50 to $26.75 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Hecla Mining from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Hecla Mining from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.82.

Hecla Mining Stock Up 0.3%

HL stock opened at $20.45 on Monday. Hecla Mining Company has a 52 week low of $8.07 and a 52 week high of $34.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.73 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.18.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last posted 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 the consensus estimate of $368.75 million. Hecla Mining had a return on equity of 18.91% and a net margin of 20.84%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.09 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Hecla Mining Company will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Hecla Mining Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.0038 per share. This represents a $0.01 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 26th. Hecla Mining’s payout ratio is presently 2.04%.

Hecla Mining 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.