U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA) Shares Sold by CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp

CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp reduced its position in U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA - Get Rating) by 14.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 126,460 shares of the mining company's stock after selling 21,169 shares during the quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp owned about 0.17% of U.S. Silica worth $1,581,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in U.S. Silica by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,962,148 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $141,934,000 after purchasing an additional 107,466 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in U.S. Silica by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,443,977 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $70,562,000 after acquiring an additional 422,719 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in U.S. Silica by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,907,353 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $48,842,000 after acquiring an additional 149,255 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in U.S. Silica by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,825,633 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $43,689,000 after acquiring an additional 269,677 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in U.S. Silica by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,310,730 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $28,884,000 after acquiring an additional 72,682 shares in the last quarter. 82.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

A number of research firms have weighed in on SLCA. Barclays boosted their price objective on U.S. Silica from $17.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 9th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of U.S. Silica from $13.50 to $15.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised U.S. Silica from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, U.S. Silica has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $17.00.

In related news, CEO Bryan Adair Shinn sold 58,499 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.99, for a total value of $818,401.01. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,460,684 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,434,969.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NYSE:SLCA opened at $12.78 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $984.83 million, a PE ratio of 7.65 and a beta of 2.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $12.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.30. U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $9.47 and a 12-month high of $19.36. The company has a current ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

U.S. Silica (NYSE:SLCA - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 27th. The mining company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $442.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $424.60 million. U.S. Silica had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 7.89%. U.S. Silica's revenue was up 45.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc engages in the provision of commercial silica products. It operates through the following segments: Oil and Gas Proppants, and Industrial and Specialty Products. The Oil and Gas Proppants segment focuses on delivering fracturing sand, which is pumped down oil and natural gas wells to prop open rock fissures and increase the flow rate of natural gas and oil from the wells.

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