Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The mining company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.34 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.11) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of CLF stock opened at $18.15 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $8.63 billion, a P/E 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 current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1-year low of $13.61 and a 1-year high of $22.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $20.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.00.

Cleveland-Cliffs announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, April 22nd that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the mining company to buy up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on CLF. Citigroup lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and set a $18.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have 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 $20.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,494,606.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,699,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,494,606.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Arlene M. Yocum acquired 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was purchased 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 in the company, valued at $1,899,637.74. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 221,066 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,688 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

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.