Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Shares Sold by Private Advisor Group LLC

Private Advisor Group LLC decreased its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) by 11.9% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 402,030 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 54,127 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs were worth $9,142,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CLF. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 24,575 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $559,000 after buying an additional 845 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 47.9% in the 1st quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 934,904 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $21,260,000 after buying an additional 302,591 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900,398 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $43,215,000 after buying an additional 47,202 shares during the period. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,931,000. Finally, Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 178.5% in the 1st quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 39,731 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $903,000 after buying an additional 25,465 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ben Oren acquired 6,700 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $14.99 per share, for a total transaction of $100,433.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 14,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $212,363.33. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Celso L. Goncalves, Jr. acquired 7,250 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $14.98 per share, for a total transaction of $108,605.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 314,362 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,709,142.76. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Ben Oren acquired 6,700 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $14.99 per share, for a total transaction of $100,433.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 14,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $212,363.33. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired a total of 98,950 shares of company stock worth $1,639,638 in the last ninety days. 1.76% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLF has been the subject of several analyst reports. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Citigroup cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.44.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 1.9 %

Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.65. 9,582,819 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,895,079. The company has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 2.03. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a twelve month low of $13.84 and a twelve month high of $22.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a fifty day moving average of $16.33 and a 200-day moving average of $18.87.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.34 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 1.78%. Cleveland-Cliffs’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.11) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post 0.34 EPS for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, April 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the mining company to repurchase up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management 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.