U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA – Get Free Report) shares traded down 2.7% on Monday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $18.00 to $15.00. The stock traded as low as $12.61 and last traded at $12.81. 141,937 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 766,332 shares. The stock had previously closed at $13.17.
Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of U.S. Silica from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.00.
Institutional Trading of U.S. Silica
Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in U.S. Silica during the fourth quarter worth $227,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in U.S. Silica by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 33,382 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754 shares during the period. Heritage Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in U.S. Silica during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position in U.S. Silica by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 245,653 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $3,071,000 after purchasing an additional 14,453 shares during the period. Finally, Symmetry Investments LP raised its stake in U.S. Silica by 36.9% during the fourth quarter. Symmetry Investments LP now owns 124,628 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,558,000 after acquiring an additional 33,616 shares in the last quarter. 82.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
U.S. Silica Stock Performance
The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The stock has a market cap of $986.37 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.89 and a beta of 2.57.
U.S. Silica (NYSE:SLCA – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The mining company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $442.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $424.60 million. U.S. Silica had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 7.89%. The firm’s revenue was up 45.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. will post 1.8 EPS for the current year.
About U.S. Silica
U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc produces and sells commercial silica in the United States. It operates through two segments, Oil & Gas Proppants and Industrial & Specialty Products. The company offers whole grain commercial silica products to be used as fracturing sand in connection with oil and natural gas recovery, as well as sells its whole grain silica products in various size distributions, grain shapes, and chemical purity levels for the manufacturing of glass products.