Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Trading 1.9% Higher – Time to Buy?

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)’s stock price shot up 1.9% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $9.84 and last traded at $9.60. 4,362,609 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 12,714,486 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.42.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on CLF. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Glj Research cut their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $14.54 to $12.90 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.43.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.70 and a beta of 1.94. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $10.34 and its 200-day moving average is $11.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John T. Baldwin bought 4,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $8.70 per share, with a total value of $34,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 133,227 shares in the company, valued at $1,159,074.90. This trade represents a 3.10 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jane M. Cronin purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $10.56 per share, for a total transaction of $105,600.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 24,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $258,952.32. This trade represents a 68.86 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 23,500 shares of company stock worth $243,095. 1.76% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 105.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 262,771 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $3,429,000 after buying an additional 134,939 shares during the last quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter worth approximately $18,999,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,432,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 987.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 207,000 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $2,644,000 after acquiring an additional 187,957 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

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.