Sigma Planning Corp Trims Stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

Sigma Planning Corp reduced its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) by 43.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 29,389 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 22,446 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs were worth $600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 83.7% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,571 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 716 shares in the last quarter. HighMark Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 50.3% during the 4th 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. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CLF. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Argus downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cleveland-Cliffs has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.75.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Cleveland-Cliffs stock opened at $18.31 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $8.71 billion, a PE ratio of 24.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.03. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.00. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a twelve month low of $13.61 and a twelve month high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.34 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 1.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.11) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, April 22nd that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the mining company to purchase up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $54,494,606.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $54,494,606.91. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ron A. Bloom acquired 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $20.24 per share, with a total value of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 27,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $550,953.04. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 221,066 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,688. Insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

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.