Hochschild reports £4.91 million of pre-tax profit in fiscal H1

In an announcement on Wednesday, Hochschild Mining plc (LON: HOC) said that its pre-tax profit in the first six months of fiscal 2020 came in significantly lower on a year over year basis. The company attributed its dovish performance to the Coronavirus pandemic that disrupted production in recent months. The company, however, expressed confidence that its performance in fiscal H2 is likely to improve.   

Shares of the company opened 2.5% lower on Wednesday and tanked another 10% on market open. At 260 pence per share, Hochschild is currently a little under 50% up year to date in the stock market after recovering from a low of 93 pence per share in March. Interested in trading stocks and create a new source of income? Here is an easy and simple guide on how you can invest online today.

Hochschild’s revenue drops to £175.09 million

The mining company that focuses on precious metals reported £4.91 million of pre-tax profit in the first half. In the same period last year, its profit was recorded at a much higher £22.26 million. Hochschild’s peer, BHP Group, also revealed its annual profit to have seen a 4% decline on Tuesday.

According to the FTSE 250 listed firm, its adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) registered at £60.83 million in fiscal H1 versus a higher £116 million in the comparable quarter of 2019.

In terms of revenue, the British company saw an annualised decline from £267.54 million to £175.09 million in the first half. Hochschild attributed the decline in revenue to COVID-19 that has so far infected more than 320 thousand people in the United Kingdom and caused over 41 thousand deaths.

Hochschild’s per-share losses in the fiscal first half

In its report on Wednesday, the mining company also highlighted 0.0075 pence of loss per share versus the year-ago figure of 0.03 pence of earnings per share. According to Hochschild:

“Gold has recorded an all-time high recently, and silver has reached its highest price level in seven years, and we are therefore hopeful of delivering a strong rebound in profitability in the second half of the year.”

In an announcement last month, Hochschild had revealed its partner Skeena to have achieved a maiden resource in Canada for Snip gold project.

At the time of writing, Hochschild is valued at £1.33 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 59.95.