Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) to Buyback $1.50 billion in Outstanding Shares

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, April 22nd, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the mining company to purchase up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on CLF. Citigroup downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Argus downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.75.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded down $0.24 on Wednesday, reaching $18.31. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 14,390,401 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,757,485. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 1.89. The company has a market cap of $8.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.76, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.03. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $20.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.00. Cleveland-Cliffs 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 data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The mining company reported $0.18 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 business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.11) EPS. Cleveland-Cliffs’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Ron A. Bloom bought 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were purchased at an average price 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Arlene M. Yocum purchased 2,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $20.02 per share, with a total value of $40,040.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 94,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,899,637.74. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ron A. Bloom purchased 25,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $20.24 per share, with a total value of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $550,953.04. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 221,066 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,688 over the last 90 days. 1.76% of the stock is owned by company 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.