Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $16.43.

Several research firms recently weighed in on CLF. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Glj Research reduced their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $14.54 to $12.90 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Jane M. Cronin acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.56 per share, for a total transaction of $105,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $258,952.32. The trade was a 68.86 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director John T. Baldwin acquired 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were bought at an average price of $8.70 per share, with a total value of $34,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 133,227 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,159,074.90. The trade was a 3.10 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 23,500 shares of company stock valued at $243,095. 1.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 6.6% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 28,752 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $367,000 after buying an additional 1,789 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 295.9% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 205,461 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,624,000 after acquiring an additional 153,560 shares during the period. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth $263,000. Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 71.2% in the third quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 34,140 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $436,000 after purchasing an additional 14,200 shares during the period. Finally, Archer Investment Corp increased its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 25.8% in the third quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 7,799 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 1,600 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

CLF opened at $10.16 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.47 and a beta of 1.94. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52-week low of $8.50 and a 52-week high of $22.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.85. The business’s fifty day moving average is $10.40 and its 200-day moving average is $11.37.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The mining company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.65) by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $4.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 0.59% and a negative net margin of 2.31%. Sell-side analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.