The Dynamic Dividend

Hecla Backs Silver-Linked Dividend with Minimum Payout

Hecla Mining Company (HL), which last year announced plans for and eventually declared a quarterly dividend tied directly to the price of silver, today announced an enhancement to its policy.

Moving forward, the low-cost silver producer will supplement the silver-linked portion of its dividend with a minimum quarterly payout of $0.0025 per share ($0.01 per share annually).

The new policy is already in effect. Hecla declared a quarterly dividend of $0.0125 per share within the same press release, with $0.01 per share of the total based on its average realized silver price during the fourth quarter ($31.61 per ounce) and the rest attributable to the new minimum payout. The silver-linked portion is just half the $0.02 per share the company paid during the previous quarter, when Hecla’s average realized silver price was more than $5 per ounce higher.

Shares of HL are currently trading at $5.60 per share. The stock is down about 3% so far this year, despite rising more than 11% in today’s early trading.

It’s impossible to pin an exact yield on the stock because of the variable silver portion of Hecla’s dividend, but the new minimum quarterly dividend alone pays 0.18%. A regular quarterly dividend of $0.0125 per share would produce a 0.89% yield.