Zacks Investment Research Upgrades Hecla Mining (HL) to “Strong-Buy”
Posted by Tatum Peregrin on May 12th, 2018 // No Comments
Hecla Mining logoHecla Mining (NYSE:HL) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Thursday. The firm presently has a $4.50 price target on the basic materials company’s stock. Zacks Investment Research‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 14.50% from the company’s current price.
According to Zacks, “Hecla Mining Company is a leading low-cost U.S. silver producer with operating mines in Alaska and Idaho, and is a growing gold producer with an operating mine in Quebec, Canada. The Company also has exploration and pre-development properties in five world-class silver and gold mining districts in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and an exploration office and investments in early-stage silver exploration projects in Canada. “
Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Hecla Mining from $4.50 to $4.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 20th. HC Wainwright dropped their price objective on shares of Hecla Mining to $7.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 20th. ValuEngine cut shares of Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $5.00 price objective on shares of Hecla Mining and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Hecla Mining has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $5.14.
Hecla Mining opened at $3.93 on Thursday, according to Marketbeat. Hecla Mining has a 52-week low of $3.91 and a 52-week high of $4.01. The company has a quick ratio of 2.37, a current ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a PE ratio of 39.30, a P/E/G ratio of 118.50 and a beta of 0.40.
Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 10th. The basic materials company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.01. Hecla Mining had a negative net margin of 4.07% and a positive return on equity of 2.17%. The business had revenue of $139.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $139.63 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.04 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. equities research analysts expect that Hecla Mining will post 0.03 earnings per share for the current year.
Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 41,746,917 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $153,211,000 after buying an additional 960,494 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 33,648,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $123,491,000 after buying an additional 85,660 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,922,232 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $102,911,000 after buying an additional 694,899 shares in the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its position in shares of Hecla Mining by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 10,100,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,067,000 after buying an additional 400,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hecla Mining in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,057,000. Institutional investors own 59.90% of the company’s stock.
