Friday, February 03, 2012

Frivolous Lawsuit Bothers Hecla Mining (HL)

Some people just can't take life's setbacks in stride.  Drops in a company's share price are normal and can happen for any reason or no reason at all.  Some shareholders are suing Hecla Mining just because the share price dipped.  They allege the company made statements that overestimated its value.  Numbers from operational results don't support such an allegation.  Hecla is generating decent ROE (about 12%) and margins are extremely healthy.  It helps that the price of silver is at record highs but Hecla has been around for over a century, so somebody there must know what they're doing.  

Accidents happen in mining.  It figures that a union would bring this suit.  Unions just don't get the free market.  It also figures that the source of this irritation is a bricklayers' union.  These particular opportunists must be as dumb as bricks, reflecting unfairly on the vast majority of bricklayers.  The case should be thrown out forthwith for lack of merit.  

Full disclosure:  No position in HL at this time.