Forensic Analysis · Nonmetallic Mineral Mining & Quarrying · as of Nov 8, 2026
Hecla Mining Co/De/ (HL)
A forensic read on Hecla Mining Co/De/ built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
4.3
Distress distance
Watch
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
13.9%
ROE
53.0%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Hecla Mining Co/De/ earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 4.3, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of NOA).
What the filings flag
+13.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +13.8% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +440% against revenue +53% and inventory up +9% against +9% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 11% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 13.8%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
11.8%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 11.8% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2023–FY2025 from -1.3%. After-tax operating profit was ($35M) in FY2023 and $346M in FY2025, with operating income at -6.2% of revenue in FY2023, 11.4% in FY2024 and 36.2% in FY2025. The capital base behind it went from $2.7B in FY2023 to $2.9B in FY2025 (+7%), while the revenue it carried went from $720M to $1.4B.
+4.1%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +8% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+4.1%/yr). The count is growing — 605.7M shares in FY2023, 655.8M in FY2025: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~4.1% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~8%.
0.8% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.8% of revenue and 4% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $0.02 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 4.1% a year across FY2023–FY2025 and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
-61%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~61% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.42B
Revenue Growth YoY+53.0%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+40.6%
Net Margin22.6%
Free Cash Flow$310.2M
Return on Equity13.9%
Debt / Equity0.00x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Hecla Mining Co/De/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?