Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 294,209 Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) by 15.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,606,189 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 294,209 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.34% of Cleveland-Cliffs worth $24,719,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 45.8% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 215,644 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $4,407,000 after acquiring an additional 67,697 shares in the last quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. acquired a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter worth $357,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 42,325 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $864,000 after purchasing an additional 2,620 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 18,460 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $376,000 after buying an additional 1,639 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 456,157 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $9,315,000 after buying an additional 4,594 shares during the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on CLF. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $23.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $17.50 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $18.94.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

CLF opened at $13.06 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.65, a P/E/G ratio of 7.70 and a beta of 2.03. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $14.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 0.60. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 1 year low of $12.39 and a 1 year high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The mining company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 4.94% and a net margin of 0.21%. The business had revenue of $5.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.69 earnings per share. Cleveland-Cliffs’s quarterly revenue was down 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post 0.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other news, Director Ben Oren bought 6,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $14.99 per share, for a total transaction of $100,433.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 14,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,363.33. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Ben Oren purchased 6,700 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $14.99 per share, for a total transaction of $100,433.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 14,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,363.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Celso L. Goncalves, Jr. bought 7,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $14.98 per share, with a total value of $108,605.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 314,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,709,142.76. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.76% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.