Russell Douglas Lawlar Sells 11,679 Shares of Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) Stock

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) CFO Russell Douglas Lawlar sold 11,679 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.91, for a total transaction of $57,343.89. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 393,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,934,019.54. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Hecla Mining Price Performance

NYSE:HL opened at $4.85 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Hecla Mining has a 1 year low of $3.33 and a 1 year high of $6.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.70.

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.03. Hecla Mining had a negative net margin of 12.22% and a negative return on equity of 0.28%. The firm had revenue of $189.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $190.31 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hecla Mining will post 0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hecla Mining Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th were issued a dividend of $0.006 per share. This represents a $0.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. Hecla Mining’s payout ratio is -20.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Hecla Mining to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hecla Mining to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. National Bank Financial restated an “outperform market weight” rating on shares of Hecla Mining in a research report on Monday, April 8th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Hecla Mining from $6.75 to $7.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Hecla Mining to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6.97.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hecla Mining

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Tactive Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 61.2% during the 1st quarter. Tactive Advisors LLC now owns 107,276 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 40,730 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 48.9% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 15,532 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 5,104 shares during the period. Comerica Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 159,629.7% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 424,881 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,044,000 after acquiring an additional 424,615 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Hecla Mining during the 1st quarter worth about $42,576,000. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Hecla Mining by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,155,943 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,560,000 after acquiring an additional 32,478 shares during the period. 63.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.