48,835 Shares in Hecla Mining Company $HL Acquired by Securian Asset Management Inc.

Securian Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 48,835 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $937,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of HL. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Hecla Mining by 20.9% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,285,345 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $23,827,000 after purchasing an additional 739,360 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in Hecla Mining by 24.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,959,276 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,894,000 after purchasing an additional 380,448 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Hecla Mining by 10.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 65,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $393,000 after purchasing an additional 6,450 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in Hecla Mining by 71.6% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 78,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $435,000 after purchasing an additional 32,714 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in Hecla Mining by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 153,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $922,000 after purchasing an additional 2,793 shares in the last quarter. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on HL shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Hecla Mining from $16.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Hecla Mining from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Roth Mkm set a $13.00 price objective on shares of Hecla Mining in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their target price on shares of Hecla Mining from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of Hecla Mining from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $22.25.

Hecla Mining Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HL opened at $21.04 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 4.53 and a current ratio of 4.94. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $19.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.11 billion, a PE ratio of 51.31 and a beta of 1.26. Hecla Mining Company has a 52 week low of $4.68 and a 52 week high of $34.17.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $411.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $407.63 million. Hecla Mining had a return on equity of 16.89% and a net margin of 17.41%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 57.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.04 EPS. Analysts predict that Hecla Mining Company will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.0038 per share. This represents a $0.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 22nd. Hecla Mining’s dividend payout ratio is 2.44%.

Hecla Mining Company 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.