Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Receives Buy Rating from B. Riley

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at B. Riley in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $17.00 price target on the mining company's stock, down from their prior price target of $20.00. B. Riley's price target points to a potential upside of 119.64% from the company's previous close.

CLF has been the topic of a number of other reports. Glj Research reduced their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $14.54 to $12.90 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $15.49.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Up 6.9 %

Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $7.74. The stock had a trading volume of 7,208,166 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,862,719. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.83 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.98 and a beta of 1.93. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1-year low of $6.17 and a 1-year high of $18.82. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $9.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.85.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 24th. The mining company reported ($0.68) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.65) by ($0.03). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 0.59% and a negative net margin of 2.31%. The business had revenue of $4.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.46 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cleveland-Cliffs

In related news, Director Jane M. Cronin bought 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $10.56 per share, for a total transaction of $105,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $258,952.32. The trade was a 68.86 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John T. Baldwin purchased 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $8.70 per share, for a total transaction of $34,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 133,227 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,159,074.90. This represents a 3.10 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 23,500 shares of company stock valued at $243,095. Company insiders own 1.76% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CLF. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Can purchased a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 4th quarter valued at about $55,453,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,381,000. Slate Path Capital LP boosted its position 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 valued at $152,355,000 after purchasing an additional 4,239,000 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.5% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cleveland-Cliffs Company 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.

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