Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Issues Earnings Results

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

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of CLF opened at $18.31 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $20.97 and its 200 day moving average is $19.00. Cleveland-Cliffs has a fifty-two week low of $13.61 and a fifty-two week high of $22.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.71 billion, a PE ratio of 24.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 2.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, Director Arlene M. Yocum purchased 2,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were bought at an average price of $20.02 per share, for a total transaction of $40,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 94,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,899,637.74. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total value of $3,778,275.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,699,089 shares in the company, valued at $54,494,606.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Arlene M. Yocum acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $20.02 per share, with a total value of $40,040.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 94,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,899,637.74. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688. Insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Argus cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. TheStreet cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.75.

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.