Do Hedge Funds Love Hecla Mining Company (HL)?

Due to the fact that Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) has faced a declination in interest from the smart money, logic holds that there were a few hedge funds that slashed their positions entirely in the third quarter. It’s worth mentioning that J. Alan Reid, Jr.’s Forward Management cut the largest position of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, totaling about $0.7 million in stock, and Ben Levine, Andrew Manuel and Stefan Renold’s LMR Partners was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $0.2 million worth of shares. These bearish behaviors are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 4 funds in the third quarter.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL). These stocks are Cash America International, Inc. (NYSE:CSH), TriMas Corp (NASDAQ:TRS), Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE), and Cardinal Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CFNL). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL)’s market valuation.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 14 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $97 million. That figure was $14 million in Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL)’s case. Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, Cardinal Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CFNL) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks, Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) is even less popular than Cardinal Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CFNL). Considering that hedge funds aren’t fond of this stock in relation to other companies analyzed in this article, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and understand why the smart money isn’t behind this stock. This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although it is possible that hedge funds may think the stock is overpriced and view the stock as a short candidate, they may not be very familiar with the bullish thesis. In either case, more research is warranted.