Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Shares Up 2% - Still a Buy?

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $8.04 and last traded at $7.93. Approximately 13,320,254 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 24% from the average daily volume of 17,566,270 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.78.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CLF has been the subject of a number of research reports. B. Riley reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $17.00 price objective (down previously from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Glj Research downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a "strong-buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating and set a $3.91 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four 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, Cleveland-Cliffs presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $12.74.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Down 8.3%

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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.58 and a beta of 1.85. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.30.

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

Insider Transactions at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.85, for a total value of $822,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 492,249 shares in the company, valued at $3,371,905.65. The trade was a 19.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.71% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,751,789 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $458,267,000 after buying an additional 2,556,332 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 647,282 shares during the period. Slate Path Capital LP lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 4,239,000 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 worth $79,611,000 after purchasing an additional 264,078 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,236,247 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.