StockNews.com Downgrades Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) to Hold

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on CLF. Argus cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. TheStreet cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Citigroup cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. BNP Paribas cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $18.00 target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.75.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock opened at $18.25 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $20.94 and a 200 day moving average of $18.99. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 12 month low of $13.61 and a 12 month high of $22.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 2.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.34 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 1.78% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.11) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, April 22nd that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the mining company to buy up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total transaction of $132,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 90,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,841,834.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Arlene M. Yocum bought 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 acquisition, the director now owns 94,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,899,637.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total value of $132,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 90,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,841,834.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 221,066 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,688 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $117,585,000. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT now owns 4,037,507 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $82,446,000 after buying an additional 334,739 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,542,004 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $72,328,000 after buying an additional 194,948 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 9.5% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,735,603 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $42,757,000 after buying an additional 236,274 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 154.2% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,586,472 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $40,181,000 after buying an additional 1,568,961 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Cleveland-Cliffs Company Profile

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.