Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY Buys 39,866 Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF)

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY increased its stake in Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF) by 26.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 191,885 shares of the mining company’s stock after buying an additional 39,866 shares during the period. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY’s holdings in Cliffs Natural Resources were worth $1,575,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Cliffs Natural Resources during the fourth quarter valued at $442,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Cliffs Natural Resources by 91.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,705,786 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $22,756,000 after buying an additional 1,289,050 shares during the period. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cliffs Natural Resources by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 230,451 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,939,000 after buying an additional 7,715 shares during the period. Searle & CO. bought a new stake in shares of Cliffs Natural Resources during the fourth quarter valued at $1,326,000. Finally, Alpha Windward LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cliffs Natural Resources during the first quarter valued at $341,000. Institutional investors own 66.66% of the company’s stock.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF) opened at 7.29 on Friday. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. has a 1-year low of $4.91 and a 1-year high of $12.37. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $6.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.97. The stock has a market cap of $2.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.63 and a beta of 1.66.

Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE:CLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The mining company reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $461.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $412.71 million. Cliffs Natural Resources had a net margin of 1.68% and a negative return on equity of 5.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 51.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.62 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. will post $0.87 EPS for the current year.

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A number of research analysts have recently commented on CLF shares. J P Morgan Chase & Co increased their price objective on Cliffs Natural Resources from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 27th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Cliffs Natural Resources from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $7.75 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 20th. FBR & Co upgraded Cliffs Natural Resources from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $10.00 in a report on Friday, April 28th. TheStreet downgraded Cliffs Natural Resources from a “c” rating to a “d+” rating in a report on Thursday, May 4th. Finally, ValuEngine upgraded Cliffs Natural Resources from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.50.

In other news, Chairman Lourenco Goncalves acquired 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $6.31 per share, with a total value of $1,262,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chairman now directly owns 2,855,296 shares in the company, valued at $18,016,917.76. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director John T. Baldwin acquired 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 3rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $6.32 per share, with a total value of $37,920.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 87,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $556,103.12. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 215,250 shares of company stock valued at $1,361,283. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cliffs Natural Resources Company Profile

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc is a mining and natural resources company. The Company is a supplier of iron ore pellets to the North American steel industry from its mines and pellet plants located in Michigan and Minnesota. The Company’s segments include U.S. Iron Ore and Asia Pacific Iron Ore. The Company is a producer of iron ore pellets, primarily selling production from U.S.

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