Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

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

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE CLF traded down $0.36 during trading on Thursday, reaching $17.96. The company had a trading volume of 2,624,185 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,674,985. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 12-month low of $13.61 and a 12-month high of $22.97. The stock has a market cap of $8.54 billion, a PE ratio of 24.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 2.03. The business’s 50-day moving average is $20.97 and its 200 day moving average is $19.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Insider Transactions at Cleveland-Cliffs

In related news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total transaction of $132,600.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 90,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,841,834.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total value of $3,778,275.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,699,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,494,606.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total value of $132,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 90,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,841,834.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 221,066 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,688. Insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CLF. TheStreet downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research restated an “underperform” rating and issued a $18.00 target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Argus downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.75.

Cleveland-Cliffs declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, April 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the mining company to reacquire up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.