Towle & Co. Cuts Position in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

Towle & Co. lowered its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Free Report) by 34.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 919,553 shares of the mining company's stock after selling 477,746 shares during the quarter. Towle & Co. owned approximately 0.19% of Cleveland-Cliffs worth $8,644,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CLF. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 232.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,113,337 shares of the mining company's stock worth $39,757,000 after acquiring an additional 2,176,837 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 29.1% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 14,008 shares of the mining company's stock worth $132,000 after acquiring an additional 3,155 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $96,000. Arkadios Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 31.4% in the 4th quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 68,251 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $642,000 after buying an additional 16,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M.E. Allison & CO. Inc. bought a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $108,000. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CLF. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 3rd. B. Riley reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $17.00 price objective (down previously from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped 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. Finally, Glj Research dropped their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $14.54 to $12.90 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $14.02.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CLF traded down $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $6.52. 45,626,219 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,525,328. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 12-month low of $6.17 and a 12-month high of $17.41. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.72 and a beta of 2.03. The business's fifty day moving average price is $7.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.75.

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

Insider Activity at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other Cleveland-Cliffs 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 value of $822,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 492,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,371,905.65. This represents a 19.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director John T. Baldwin bought 4,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $8.70 per share, for a total transaction of $34,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 133,227 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,159,074.90. The trade was a 3.10% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired a total of 23,500 shares of company stock worth $243,095 over the last quarter. 1.71% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.