Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Director Purchases $425,000.00 in Stock

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Director Ron A. Bloom bought 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $17.00 per share, with a total value of $425,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 59,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,018,300. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE:CLF opened at $17.60 on Friday. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.61 and a 12-month high of $22.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 2.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.07.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 1.78%. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.34 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.11) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post 1.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, April 22nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the mining company to repurchase up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CLF. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. BNP Paribas cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Citigroup cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. TheStreet cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.42.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Korea Investment CORP lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 30.6% during the third quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 514,890 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $8,048,000 after acquiring an additional 120,540 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 240.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,988,689 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $31,083,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404,491 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth about $4,970,000. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning bought a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth about $3,908,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 29.4% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 554,022 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $8,659,000 after acquiring an additional 125,884 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.