Morgan Stanley Lowers Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Price Target to $13.50

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) had its target price trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $15.00 to $13.50 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the mining company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on CLF. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $18.00 to $12.50 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and cut their price target for the company from $23.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, B. Riley restated a buy rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $17.56.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock opened at $11.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.59, a P/E/G ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 1.97. Cleveland-Cliffs has a twelve month low of $10.21 and a twelve month high of $22.97. The company’s fifty day moving average is $13.58 and its 200 day moving average is $16.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The mining company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 4.94% and a net margin of 0.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 0.01 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hodges Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,199,634 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $33,852,000 after purchasing an additional 104,197 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at $71,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 2.5% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 40,118 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $879,000 after buying an additional 984 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 82.2% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 392,842 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $8,932,000 after acquiring an additional 177,198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis acquired a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 1st quarter worth about $100,000. Institutional investors own 67.68% 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.