Do Hedge Funds Love Hecla Mining Company (HL)?

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We have been waiting for this for a year and finally the third quarter ended up showing a nice bump in the performance of small-cap stocks. Both the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 were up since the end of the second quarter, but small-cap stocks outperformed the large-cap stocks by double digits. This is important for hedge funds, which are big supporters of small-cap stocks, because their investors started pulling some of their capital out due to poor recent performance. It is very likely that equity hedge funds will deliver better risk adjusted returns in the second half of this year. In this article we are going to look at how this recent market trend affected the sentiment of hedge funds towards Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL), and what that likely means for the prospects of the company and its stock.

Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest recently. At the end of this article we will also compare HL to other stocks including NovaGold Resources Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:NG), Sanderson Farms, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAFM), and Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAY) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Follow Hecla Mining Co (NYSE:HL)

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Now, let’s go over the latest action surrounding Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL).

Hedge fund activity in Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL)

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of 19 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, up 27% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a few notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

HedgeFundSentimentChart

When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management has the most valuable position in Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL), worth close to $27.4 million and accounting for less than 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. The second most bullish fund manager is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which holds a $24.1 million position; less than 0.1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Some other members of the smart money that are bullish contain Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies, Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates and Glenn Russell Dubin’s Highbridge Capital Management.

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