HC Wainwright Reiterates Buy Rating for Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL)

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at HC Wainwright in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $11.50 target price on the basic materials company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s target price points to a potential upside of 104.44% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. National Bank Financial downgraded Hecla Mining from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, TD Securities cut their price objective on Hecla Mining from $8.50 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.25.

Hecla Mining Trading Down 11.7 %

Shares of NYSE HL traded down $0.75 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $5.63. 20,575,591 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,627,066. 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 $3.53 billion, a P/E ratio of -140.63 and a beta of 1.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $5.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.86. Hecla Mining has a 52-week low of $3.40 and a 52-week high of $7.68.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.01). Hecla Mining had a positive return on equity of 0.75% and a negative net margin of 2.27%. Equities research analysts expect that Hecla Mining will post 0.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hecla Mining

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 61,393,040 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $301,440,000 after purchasing an additional 774,000 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in 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 worth $391,510,000 after buying an additional 2,238,559 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Hecla Mining by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,904,662 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $68,289,000 after buying an additional 39,421 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Hecla Mining by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,220,645 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,453,000 after buying an additional 502,094 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 51.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,435,909 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,258,000 after acquiring an additional 1,842,991 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

About Hecla Mining

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.