Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.40 Million in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. $CLF

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 165,400 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,398,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 0.6% in the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 152,009 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,855,000 after acquiring an additional 943 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.0% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 33,118 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares in the last quarter. Whitcomb & Hess Inc. lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Whitcomb & Hess Inc. now owns 26,752 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 973 shares during the period. Rexford Capital Inc. lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Rexford Capital Inc. now owns 9,500 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Finally, Cidel Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,185 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $242,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CLF. Glj Research upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $9.03 to $15.01 in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Argus raised Cleveland-Cliffs to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $9.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $10.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Friday, April 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $12.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Celso L. Goncalves, Jr. sold 214,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.41, for a total transaction of $2,873,870.28. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 184,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,474,708.22. This represents a 53.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.95% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

NYSE CLF opened at $9.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.20 and a beta of 2.13. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has a 1 year low of $7.73 and a 1 year high of $16.70. The business’s fifty day moving average is $11.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 2.02.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 20th. The mining company reported ($0.40) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.84 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 15.48% and a negative net margin of 6.42%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.92) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cleveland-Cliffs Profile

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc is a leading North American producer of iron ore pellets and flat-rolled steel products. Tracing its roots to 1847, the company has evolved from an iron-ore mining concern in the Great Lakes region into a fully integrated steelmaker. Today, Cleveland-Cliffs operates iron ore mining complexes in Michigan and Minnesota as well as steelmaking and finishing facilities across the United States.

The company’s integrated platform begins with direct control of key raw materials, including iron ore and scrap, and extends through every stage of steel production.