LPL Financial LLC Acquires 157,493 Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

Key Points

• LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. by 23.4% in the first quarter, now owning 830,759 shares worth approximately $6.83 million.
• Cleveland-Cliffs reported a quarterly loss of ($0.50) EPS, which exceeded analysts' expectations, with revenue up 7.5% year-over-year.
• Brokerage firms have issued mixed ratings, with B. Riley maintaining a "buy" rating but adjusting the target price down to $17.00.

LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Free Report) by 23.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 830,759 shares of the mining company's stock after acquiring an additional 157,493 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned approximately 0.17% of Cleveland-Cliffs worth $6,829,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted 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 buying an additional 647,282 shares in the last quarter. Slate Path Capital LP lifted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 35.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Can purchased a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,453,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 24.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,960,192 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $37,226,000 after buying an additional 779,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 168.8% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 3,555,383 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $29,225,000 after buying an additional 2,232,799 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLF has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $10.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. B. Riley restated a "buy" rating and set a $17.00 price target (down from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 12th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $10.96.

Insider Activity at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owned 492,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,371,905.65. This represents a 19.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.71% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

NYSE CLF traded down $0.15 on Friday, hitting $10.41. The stock had a trading volume of 16,892,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 25,823,236. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 52-week low of $5.63 and a 52-week high of $14.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 2.04. The company has a market capitalization of $5.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.05 and a beta of 1.99. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $9.05 and a 200-day moving average of $8.83.

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

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.