Retirement Systems of Alabama Decreases Stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

Retirement Systems of Alabama decreased its position in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Free Report) by 51.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 589,166 shares of the mining company's stock after selling 612,495 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned 0.12% of Cleveland-Cliffs worth $4,843,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 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 purchasing an additional 2,556,332 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 21,247,426 shares of the mining company's stock worth $199,724,000 after buying an additional 647,282 shares in the last quarter. Slate Path Capital LP increased its stake 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 worth $152,355,000 after buying an additional 4,239,000 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 264,078 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted 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 acquiring an additional 1,236,247 shares during the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CLF. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 12th. B. Riley reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $17.00 price target (down from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Glj Research cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a "strong-buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating and set a $3.91 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $8.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $11.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.85, for a total transaction of $822,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 492,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,371,905.65. This trade represents a 19.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.76% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded down $0.13 on Wednesday, hitting $7.04. The stock had a trading volume of 16,906,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,434,752. The stock has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.89 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 52-week low of $5.63 and a 52-week high of $16.47. The company's 50 day moving average price is $7.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.95.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $4.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.71 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 6.35% and a negative return on equity of 12.84%. Cleveland-Cliffs's quarterly revenue was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate 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.