SFE Investment Counsel Reduces Stock Position in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

SFE Investment Counsel lessened its position in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 727,612 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 12,675 shares during the period. Cleveland-Cliffs makes up 3.9% of SFE Investment Counsel’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. SFE Investment Counsel’s holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs were worth $14,858,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Korea Investment CORP grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 30.6% in the 3rd quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 514,890 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $8,048,000 after acquiring an additional 120,540 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 240.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,988,689 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $31,083,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404,491 shares during the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 55.5% in the 3rd quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 1,743,513 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $27,251,000 after acquiring an additional 621,937 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 3rd quarter worth $4,970,000. Finally, Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 3rd quarter worth $3,908,000. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other news, Director Ron A. Bloom purchased 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $20.24 per share, for a total transaction of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 27,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $550,953.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director Ron A. Bloom acquired 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $20.24 per share, for a total transaction of $506,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 27,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $550,953.04. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Terry G. Fedor sold 27,430 shares of the company’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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 534,617 shares in the company, valued at $10,793,917.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688 over the last three months. Company insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CLF. TheStreet cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. BNP Paribas cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Argus cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Citigroup cut 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.92.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

CLF traded down $0.49 on Thursday, hitting $20.72. 5,591,021 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,360,078. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.61 and a 52 week high of $22.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.85 billion, a PE ratio of 27.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 2.03. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $20.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.83.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The mining company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.05). Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 6.79% and a net margin of 1.81%. The firm had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.30) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post 1.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.