Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Receives $14.02 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the eight analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $12.74.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CLF. B. Riley reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $17.00 price objective (down from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Glj Research reaffirmed a "sell" rating and issued a $3.91 target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Wednesday.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.85, for a total transaction of $822,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 492,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,371,905.65. This represents a 19.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jane M. Cronin bought 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $10.56 per share, for a total transaction of $105,600.00. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 23,500 shares of company stock valued at $243,095. 1.76% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,751,789 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $458,267,000 after acquiring an additional 2,556,332 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 21,247,426 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $199,724,000 after purchasing an additional 647,282 shares in the last quarter. Slate Path Capital LP increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 35.4% during the fourth quarter. Slate Path Capital LP now owns 16,208,000 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $152,355,000 after buying an additional 4,239,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,466,747 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $79,611,000 after buying an additional 264,078 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,382,769 shares of the mining company's stock worth $69,398,000 after buying an additional 1,236,247 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $6.15. 20,943,615 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,747,161. The company has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.35 and a beta of 2.03. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $7.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.63. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52-week low of $6.04 and a 52-week high of $17.41.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The mining company reported ($0.92) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.78) by ($0.14). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. The company had revenue of $4.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.18 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

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.