South Dakota Investment Council Sells 201,228 Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. $CLF

South Dakota Investment Council cut its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,140,591 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 201,228 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council owned about 0.23% of Cleveland-Cliffs worth $13,915,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 43.5% during the second quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC now owns 70,898 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 21,498 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP grew its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 66.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 794,437 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $6,038,000 after purchasing an additional 317,352 shares in the last quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. increased its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 27.2% in the 2nd quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 312,040 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,372,000 after buying an additional 66,800 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 17.5% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 8,010,913 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $97,733,000 after buying an additional 1,195,035 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 1,525.1% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 420,927 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $5,135,000 after buying an additional 395,026 shares during the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CLF has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. KeyCorp downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.89.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Up 7.0%

CLF opened at $11.41 on Tuesday. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 12 month low of $5.63 and a 12 month high of $16.70. The company has a market cap of $6.51 billion, a PE ratio of -3.91 and a beta of 1.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a 50 day moving average of $12.88 and a 200 day moving average of $12.33.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 9th. The mining company reported ($0.43) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.62) by $0.19. The business had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.60 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 7.91% and a negative return on equity of 18.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.68) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.79 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other news, COO Clifford T. Smith sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.46, for a total transaction of $2,092,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 560,529 shares in the company, valued at $5,863,133.34. This represents a 26.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 3,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.42, for a total transaction of $37,260,000.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Cleveland-Cliffs Company Profile

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc is a leading North American producer of iron ore pellets and flat-rolled steel products. Tracing its roots to 1847, the company has evolved from an iron-ore mining concern in the Great Lakes region into a fully integrated steelmaker. Today, Cleveland-Cliffs operates iron ore mining complexes in Michigan and Minnesota as well as steelmaking and finishing facilities across the United States.

The company’s integrated platform begins with direct control of key raw materials, including iron ore and scrap, and extends through every stage of steel production.