Magnetar Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. $CLF

Key Points

• Magnetar Financial LLC purchased 58,170 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., valued at approximately $478,000, signaling growing institutional interest in the mining company.
• Institutional investors now own 67.68% of Cleveland-Cliffs' stock, with several hedge funds, including Fifth Third Bancorp and Byrne Asset Management, increasing their holdings significantly in the first quarter.
• Despite reporting a better-than-expected earnings per share of ($0.50), Cleveland-Cliffs continues to face challenges, including a negative return on equity and mixed analyst ratings from research firms.

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 58,170 shares of the mining company's stock, valued at approximately $478,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 36.6% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 6,216 shares of the mining company's stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 1,664 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC increased its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 38.1% during the 1st quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 6,353 shares of the mining company's stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 1,753 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 243.2% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 7,873 shares of the mining company's stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 5,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 408,600.0% during the 1st quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 8,174 shares of the mining company's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 8,172 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.68% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CLF. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Glj Research downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a "strong-buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating and set a $3.91 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. KeyCorp raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $14.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $11.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $10.96.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded up $0.01 on Wednesday, hitting $10.46. 13,243,233 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,633,749. The stock has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.07 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm's 50-day moving average is $9.88 and its 200 day moving average is $8.83. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 52-week low of $5.63 and a 52-week high of $14.34.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 17.97% and a negative net margin of 9.03%.The firm had revenue of $4.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.90 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.11 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.79 earnings per share 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.