73,283 Shares in U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA) Purchased by Panagora Asset Management Inc.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 73,283 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $875,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of U.S. Silica by 60.4% during the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 6,737 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $126,000 after acquiring an additional 2,538 shares during the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of U.S. Silica during the 1st quarter worth $112,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of U.S. Silica in the 2nd quarter worth about $118,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in U.S. Silica during the first quarter valued at about $127,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC bought a new stake in U.S. Silica in the first quarter worth about $129,000. Institutional investors own 85.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on SLCA shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on U.S. Silica from $18.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Monday, July 17th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on U.S. Silica in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.00.

U.S. Silica Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SLCA opened at $13.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 2.81. U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.36 and a fifty-two week high of $14.90. The stock has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a PE ratio of 6.68 and a beta of 2.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $12.76 and a 200-day moving average of $12.39.

U.S. Silica (NYSE:SLCA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The mining company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $406.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $434.79 million. U.S. Silica had a return on equity of 22.65% and a net margin of 9.20%. Equities research analysts anticipate that U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

U.S. Silica Company Profile

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.