Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Authorizes Share Buyback Plan

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, April 22nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the mining company to repurchase up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

CLF traded down $0.24 on Wednesday, hitting $18.31. 14,390,401 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,757,485. The company has a current ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Cleveland-Cliffs has a one year low of $13.61 and a one year high of $22.97. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.00. The firm has a market cap of $8.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.03.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01). Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 1.78%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.11) EPS. The business’s revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLF has been the topic of several research reports. Argus cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Citigroup downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,699,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,494,606.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs 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 transaction, the director now owns 90,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,841,834.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,699,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,494,606.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 221,066 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,688 in the last quarter. 1.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.