Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) in a report published on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $22.00 price objective on the mining company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on CLF. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. B. Riley cut their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $25.00 to $24.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. BNP Paribas cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and set a $16.50 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. TheStreet downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a b- rating to a c rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $20.64.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of CLF stock opened at $17.16 on Monday. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 12-month low of $13.61 and a 12-month high of $22.97. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a PE ratio of 23.18, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 2.10.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01). Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 1.78% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.11) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cleveland-Cliffs announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, April 22nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the mining company to purchase up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Arlene M. Yocum acquired 2,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $20.02 per share, for a total transaction of $40,040.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 94,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,899,637.74. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Ron A. Bloom acquired 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $17.00 per share, for a total transaction of $425,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Arlene M. Yocum purchased 2,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost 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 $1,899,637.74. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 87,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,470,640 and sold 221,066 shares valued at $4,464,688. Company insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter valued at about $117,585,000. Peconic Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,370,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 154.2% in the 3rd 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. Barclays PLC raised its stake 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. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,928,000. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

About Cleveland-Cliffs

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.