Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Lowers Holdings in U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lowered its position in U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA - Free Report) by 30.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 563,594 shares of the mining company's stock after selling 246,912 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.73% of U.S. Silica worth $6,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SLCA. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of U.S. Silica by 90.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,817,279 shares of the mining company's stock worth $43,173,000 after acquiring an additional 1,811,951 shares during the last quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. increased its stake in shares of U.S. Silica by 39.6% in the 4th quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 447,870 shares of the mining company's stock worth $5,065,000 after acquiring an additional 127,045 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in shares of U.S. Silica by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 96,570 shares of the mining company's stock worth $1,356,000 after acquiring an additional 21,364 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of U.S. Silica by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 777,361 shares of the mining company's stock worth $10,914,000 after acquiring an additional 27,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of U.S. Silica by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,040,426 shares of the mining company's stock worth $14,608,000 after acquiring an additional 114,579 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.77% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Stacy Russell sold 20,000 shares of U.S. Silica stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.00, for a total value of $240,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 186,752 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,241,024. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 3.70% of the company's stock.

U.S. Silica Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:SLCA traded up $0.15 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $12.41. 470,289 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 942,665. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $11.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 3.23 and a quick ratio of 2.43. The stock has a market cap of $969.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.64 and a beta of 2.24. U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.09 and a fifty-two week high of $14.64.

U.S. Silica (NYSE:SLCA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The mining company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $336.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $343.72 million. U.S. Silica had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 9.47%. U.S. Silica's revenue was down 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. will post 1.17 EPS for the current fiscal 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 frac for oil and natural gas recovery, as well as sells its whole grain silica products for the manufacturing of glass products.