Morgan Stanley Reaffirms “Equal Weight” Rating for Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF)

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Morgan Stanley in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $20.00 price objective on the mining company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential downside of 9.65% from the stock’s previous close.

CLF has been the topic of several other research reports. Argus cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. TheStreet cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.30.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock opened at $22.14 on Tuesday. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $19.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.04. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52 week low of $13.61 and a 52 week high of $22.22. The stock has a market cap of $11.03 billion, a PE ratio of 28.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 2.02.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The mining company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.16 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 6.79% and a net margin of 1.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.30) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total value of $132,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 90,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,841,834.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total transaction of $3,778,275.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,699,089 shares in the company, valued at $54,494,606.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total value of $132,600.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 90,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,841,834.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,600 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 2.3% in the third quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 27,337 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 609 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 216,359 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $4,249,000 after purchasing an additional 612 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 50.3% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,850 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 1.1% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 58,149 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,873,000 after purchasing an additional 623 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.