StockNews.com Upgrades Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) to “Buy”

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. TheStreet cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Citigroup lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Argus lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $18.00 target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.92.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:CLF opened at $20.79 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $20.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.88. The company has a market cap of $9.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Cleveland-Cliffs has a one year low of $13.61 and a one year high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The mining company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.16 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 1.81% and a return on equity of 6.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.30) earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, Director Arlene M. Yocum purchased 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $20.02 per share, for a total transaction of $40,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 94,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,899,637.74. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, Director Ron A. Bloom purchased 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $20.24 per share, for a total transaction of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $550,953.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Arlene M. Yocum purchased 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $20.02 per share, with a total value of $40,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 94,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,899,637.74. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688. Corporate insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter valued at about $117,585,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 18.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,000,065 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $322,771,000 after acquiring an additional 3,295,448 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 801.2% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,608,984 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $53,277,000 after acquiring an additional 2,319,486 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,506,741 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,433,561,000 after acquiring an additional 2,276,018 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peconic Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter valued at about $42,370,000. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Cleveland-Cliffs

Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest flat-rolled steel company and the largest iron ore pellet producer in North America. The company is vertically integrated from mining through iron making, steelmaking, rolling, finishing and downstream with hot and cold stamping of steel parts and components. The company was formerly known as Cliffs Natural Resources Inc and changed its name to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc in August 2017.