Morgan Stanley Lowers Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Price Target to $13.50

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) had its target price lowered by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $15.00 to $13.50 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the mining company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 12.13% from the company’s current price.

CLF has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup cut their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $18.00 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.56.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of CLF opened at $12.04 on Wednesday. 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 has a 1 year low of $10.21 and a 1 year high of $22.97. The business has a 50-day moving average of $13.50 and a 200-day moving average of $16.63. The company has a market capitalization of $5.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 1.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The mining company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 4.94% and a net margin of 0.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 0.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Gradient Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 138.8% in the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 2,149 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,249 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 2,858.0% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429 shares during the period. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 41.7% in the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,700 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.