MeritValue

HECLA MINING CO/DE/

HLdata completeness 100%18 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

HECLA MINING CO/DE/ earns about 1% on invested capital, below its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 21% over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $0.44 and $0.55 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$807.5M1$718.9M2$720.2M3$929.9M3$1.42B3
Net income$35.1M4−$37.3M5−$84.2M6$35.8M6$321.7M6
Operating cash flow$220.3M7$89.9M8$75.5M9$218.3M9$562.6M9
Capital expenditure$109M10$149.4M11$223.9M12$214.5M12$252.4M12
Free cash flow (derived)$111.3M7−$59.5M8−$148.4M9$3.79M9$310.2M9
Total debt——$013$33.6M14$014
Cash & equivalents$210M15$104.7M16$106.4M17$26.9M17$241.6M17
Diluted shares542.2M557.3M605.7M622.5M655.8M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$39.52
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$4.91
Free cash flow it threw off
$4.73
Debt you’d be carrying
$0

10 shares is a claim on $39.52 of net worth that earned you $4.91 and generated $4.73 of cash last year, against $0 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
1% avg · 5y
FY21 3%FY22 -4%FY23 -5%FY24 0%FY25 13%

It earned about 1% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — below the cost of funding. The numbers show no moat.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+21% shares · 5y

Share count is up 21% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $0.44 and $0.55 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$0.44
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$3.79M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$0.45
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth0.0%
  • fcfBase$3.79M
Earnings Power Value
$0.55
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$35.1M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$6.6
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years0.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $0.45
The three cases
Bear0.0%$0.45
Base0.0%$0.45
Bull5.0%$0.47

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 0.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-015673 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-019955 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-055059 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-015673 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-019955 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-055059 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-015673 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-019955 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-055059 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-24-015673 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-019955 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-055059 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-019955 (DebtCurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-055059 (DebtCurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0000950170-23-003174 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0000950170-25-019955 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001193125-26-055059 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)