Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Shares Up 2% – Still a Buy?

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)’s share price shot up 2% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $8.04 and last traded at $7.93. 13,320,254 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 17,566,270 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.78.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on CLF shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Glj Research cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating and set a $3.91 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $17.00 target price (down previously from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.74.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.85. The company has a market capitalization of $3.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.21 and a beta of 1.85. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.31.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The mining company reported ($0.92) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.78) by ($0.14). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. The firm had revenue of $4.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.18 earnings per share. Cleveland-Cliffs’s revenue was down 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.85, for a total transaction of $822,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 492,249 shares in the company, valued at $3,371,905.65. This represents a 19.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.71% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 184,438 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,734,000 after buying an additional 3,610 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 4th quarter valued at $442,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the 4th quarter worth $147,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at $462,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP lifted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 955.2% during the fourth quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 171,993 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,617,000 after purchasing an additional 155,693 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.