It's been a rough time of late for the Nickel Industries Ltd (ASX: NIC) share price. Nickel Industries (formerly known as Nickel Mines) ended up closing at 94 cents a share today, down 1.57% from Friday's close of 96 cents. That puts the company's shares down around 35% year to date, as well as down more than 10% over the past 12 months.
So why have Nickel Industries shares been in the wars of late? There have been a few things going on in the nickel space. As my Fool colleague Monica looked into last month, nickel markets were roiled earlier this year when nickel was caught in a short squeeze. This saw a dramatic spike, followed by a plunge, in the nickel price.
That overshadowed what was arguably a positive quarterly result in late April. This saw Nickel Industries report a 10.7% rise in nickel production, as well as an 18.7% lift in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to US$81.7 million.
So after such a rough patch for Nickel Industries, what might the future hold for this nickel miner?
Is the Nickel Industries share price a buy today?
Well, one broker reckons the Nickel Industries share price could more than double its current level over the next 12 months. As my Fool colleague James covered last week, ASX broker Bell Potter is currently very bullish on Nickel Industries shares.
The broker currently rates the company as a "buy", with a 12-month share price target of $2 a share. That would represent an upside of almost 113% on the last share price.
Here's some of what Bell Potter said about the company:
Despite rising input costs in CY22 [the 2022 calendar year], NIC has been able to maintain and expand margins and following the successful commissioning of the Angel Nickel Project, NIC is on track for earnings growth of over 60%…
NIC is trading on undemanding valuation multiples and remains one of our Top Picks for CY22.
So that's a pretty unambiguously bullish opinion there from Bell Potter. No doubt investors would be delighted to hear it too. But we shall have to wait and see what the next 12 months hold in store for this company.
At the current Nickel Industries share price, this ASX 200 nickel share has a market capitalisation of $2.56 billion, with a dividend yield of 2.97%.
