Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Takes Position in Hecla Mining Company $HL

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 43,970 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $678,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HL. U S Global Investors Inc. bought a new position in Hecla Mining during the first quarter valued at about $1,397,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,620,647 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $319,000,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,949 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Hecla Mining during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,085,779,000. Oxbow Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hecla Mining during the 2nd quarter worth about $7,456,000. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia acquired a new position in shares of Hecla Mining during the 2nd quarter valued at about $12,349,000. 63.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on HL shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Hecla Mining from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Hecla Mining in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $22.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Hecla Mining from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of 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. Finally, HC Wainwright dropped 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.82.

Hecla Mining Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of HL stock opened at $19.86 on Tuesday. Hecla Mining Company has a 1 year low of $8.07 and a 1 year high of $34.17. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.53 and a beta of 1.32.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last issued its quarterly 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). Hecla Mining had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 18.91%. The company had revenue of $333.85 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $368.75 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.09 earnings per share. Hecla Mining’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Hecla Mining Company will post 0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Announces Dividend

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