Thousands Of Hecla Mining Calls Open ($2.5-5.0-June, Sep'09, Jan '10 (5/20/09)
Hecla Mining Breaks Out, Calls Up On Silver Production, Cost Outlook (9/10/09)
Hecla reported earnings yesterday and beat First Call estimates by 0.09.
"Hecla Mining beats by $0.09, beats on revs Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.09 per share, $0.09 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.00); revenues rose 39.0% year/year to $95.2 mln vs the $68.7 mln consensus. Third quarter silver production was 2.7 million ounces at a cash cost of $0.85 per ounce of silver produced after by-product credits. Co reduces full year guidance for cash costs by 25% to $2.25 per ounce of silver. The co is on track to meet its full year production guidance of 10.5-11 million ounces of silver." (via Briefing/MSN)
As a result, Hecla gained 18% on 29.9 million shares, a volume level never seen before. The stock is set to rage ware against $5 resistance if it doesn't retrace some gains. Schaeffers Research came out with an excellent note about Hecla's call action the day before earnings (Option Players Bet on a Major Post-Earnings Move from Hecla Mining Company). Looking during/after the fact, call volume was still active today at the $5 strike with 6,500-7,200 contracts trading in November, December and January. The volume was under open interest on a 160% gain (for Nov) so some of that could have been fast money. The ISEE ratio was down 88% from Nov 2, however calls opened still outnumbered puts, 2.88k/116 or an ISEE value of 32.77K. Watch SLV and HL trade live below, they could get volatile.
