Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Director Ron A. Bloom Purchases 25,000 Shares of Stock

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Director Ron A. Bloom acquired 25,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $17.00 per share, with a total value of $425,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 59,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,018,300. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE CLF opened at $16.70 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 2.03. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $20.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 1.90. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 52-week low of $13.61 and a 52-week high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.34 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 1.78% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.11) EPS. Analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post 1.56 EPS for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, April 22nd that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the mining company to reacquire up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CLF has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Argus lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.42.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CLF. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 83.7% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,571 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 716 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 2,858.0% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 1,429 shares during the period. Finally, HighMark Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

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.