SFE Investment Counsel Raises Stock Holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

SFE Investment Counsel increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Free Report) by 26.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,053,677 shares of the mining company's stock after purchasing an additional 217,423 shares during the quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs makes up about 1.7% of SFE Investment Counsel's holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest position. SFE Investment Counsel owned approximately 0.21% of Cleveland-Cliffs worth $8,661,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Carnegie Investment Counsel lifted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.2% in the first quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 105,367 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $866,000 after purchasing an additional 17,700 shares during the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the first quarter valued at approximately $291,000. Madison Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 1st quarter valued at about $222,000. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 1st quarter valued at about $158,000. Finally, Readystate Asset Management LP increased its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 151.9% in the first quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 149,122 shares of the mining company's stock worth $1,226,000 after buying an additional 89,928 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CLF has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. B. Riley reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $17.00 price objective (down from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $11.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. 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 research report on Wednesday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $10.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $14.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $11.09.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Up 4.8%

NYSE CLF traded up $0.53 during trading on Friday, reaching $11.44. 28,309,127 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 30,815,626. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 12-month low of $5.63 and a 12-month high of $15.71. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $8.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.83. The firm has a market cap of $5.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.35 and a beta of 1.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 0.64.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The mining company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.68) by $0.18. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 9.03% and a negative return on equity of 17.97%. The business had revenue of $4.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.11 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.85, for a total value of $822,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 492,249 shares in the company, valued at $3,371,905.65. This represents a 19.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.71% of the company's stock.

Cleveland-Cliffs 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.