D.A. Davidson & CO. Reduces Stock Position in Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL)

D.A. Davidson & CO. decreased its stake in shares of Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) by 94.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 250,295 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Hecla Mining were worth $70,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HL. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,238,559 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in Hecla Mining in the third quarter valued at about $14,623,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Hecla Mining by 51.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,435,909 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,258,000 after buying an additional 1,842,991 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 43.8% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,481,761 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,223,000 after acquiring an additional 1,059,929 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Hecla Mining by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,865,241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $92,499,000 after acquiring an additional 711,676 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Hecla Mining from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $11.50 price target on shares of Hecla Mining in a research note on Friday, February 14th. National Bank Financial cut Hecla Mining from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Hecla Mining from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 17th. Finally, Roth Mkm lowered their target price on Hecla Mining from $6.60 to $6.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $8.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Michael L. Clary sold 32,387 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.18, for a total transaction of $167,764.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 246,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,276,559.20. This represents a 11.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Robert Krcmarov bought 6,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $5.29 per share, for a total transaction of $34,755.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 331,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,755,518.24. This represents a 2.02 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 57,915 shares of company stock worth $300,000 over the last 90 days. 1.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hecla Mining Stock Down 2.8 %

Hecla Mining stock opened at $5.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 101.72 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Hecla Mining has a twelve month low of $3.41 and a twelve month high of $7.68. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $5.87.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $249.66 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $229.21 million. Hecla Mining had a return on equity of 3.10% and a net margin of 3.85%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Hecla Mining will post 0.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.0038 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Hecla Mining’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.00%.

Hecla Mining Company Profile

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.