Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. Sells 1,592 Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. reduced its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) by 1.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 109,881 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 1,592 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs were worth $2,499,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL grew its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL now owns 33,482 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $761,000 after purchasing an additional 979 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 32.5% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 286,627 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $6,518,000 after buying an additional 70,268 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 0.7% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 494,275 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $11,240,000 after buying an additional 3,459 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,684,000. Finally, Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. raised its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 43.0% in the 1st quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 715,000 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $16,259,000 after acquiring an additional 215,000 shares during the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ben Oren acquired 6,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $14.99 per share, with a total value of $100,433.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,167 shares in the company, valued at $212,363.33. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Ben Oren acquired 6,700 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $14.99 per share, with a total value of $100,433.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 14,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $212,363.33. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Ron A. Bloom bought 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price of $17.00 per share, for a total transaction of $425,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 59,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,018,300. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased a total of 98,950 shares of company stock worth $1,639,638 over the last quarter. 1.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

NYSE CLF traded up $0.67 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $15.88. 15,691,514 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,944,312. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.84 and a 52 week high of $22.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 2.03. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $15.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.46.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The mining company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $5.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.18 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 1.78% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.69 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post 0.3 EPS for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, April 22nd that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the mining company to repurchase up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on CLF. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Monday, May 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $22.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cleveland-Cliffs presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.44.

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.