Stock Repurchase Plan Announced by Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Board of Directors

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, April 22nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the mining company to buy up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

NYSE CLF opened at $18.31 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $20.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.00. Cleveland-Cliffs has a twelve month low of $13.61 and a twelve month high of $22.97. The company has a market capitalization of $8.71 billion, a PE ratio of 24.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 1.78%. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.11) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on CLF. Citigroup lowered Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. BNP Paribas lowered Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. TheStreet lowered Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Argus lowered Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total value of $132,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 90,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,841,834.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total value of $3,778,275.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,699,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,494,606.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total value of $132,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 90,286 shares in the company, valued at $1,841,834.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688. 1.76% of the stock is owned by company 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.