Is Hecla Mining (HL) Stock Outpacing Its Basic Materials Peers This Year?

For those looking to find strong Basic Materials stocks, it is prudent to search for companies in the group that are outperforming their peers. Hecla Mining (HL) is a stock that can certainly grab the attention of many investors, but do its recent returns compare favorably to the sector as a whole? A quick glance at the company's year-to-date performance in comparison to the rest of the Basic Materials sector should help us answer this question.

Hecla Mining is one of 254 companies in the Basic Materials group. The Basic Materials group currently sits at #2 within the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank includes 16 different groups and is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors.

The Zacks Rank is a proven model that highlights a variety of stocks with the right characteristics to outperform the market over the next one to three months. The system emphasizes earnings estimate revisions and favors companies with improving earnings outlooks. Hecla Mining is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Within the past quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for HL's full-year earnings has moved 55.3% higher. This shows that analyst sentiment has improved and the company's earnings outlook is stronger.

According to our latest data, HL has moved about 18.7% on a year-to-date basis. At the same time, Basic Materials stocks have gained an average of 16.3%. As we can see, Hecla Mining is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Another stock in the Basic Materials sector, Intrepid Potash (IPI), has outperformed the sector so far this year. The stock's year-to-date return is 18.6%.

Over the past three months, Intrepid Potash's consensus EPS estimate for the current year has increased 142.6%. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Looking more specifically, Hecla Mining belongs to the Mining - Silver industry, a group that includes 9 individual stocks and currently sits at #5 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 17.7% so far this year, so HL is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Intrepid Potash, however, belongs to the Fertilizers industry. Currently, this 6-stock industry is ranked #18. The industry has moved +11.7% so far this year.

Going forward, investors interested in Basic Materials stocks should continue to pay close attention to Hecla Mining and Intrepid Potash as they could maintain their solid performance.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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