Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) released its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01), Briefing.com reports. Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 1.78% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.11) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

CLF opened at $18.31 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $20.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. 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 price-to-earnings ratio of 24.74, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 2.03.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Terry G. Fedor sold 27,430 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total value of $553,811.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 534,617 shares in the company, valued at $10,793,917.23. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Terry G. Fedor sold 27,430 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total value of $553,811.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 534,617 shares in the company, valued at $10,793,917.23. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total transaction of $132,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 90,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,841,834.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688. 1.76% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CLF shares. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Argus downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wolfe Research restated an “underperform” rating and set a $18.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.75.

Cleveland-Cliffs declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, April 22nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the mining company to buy up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.