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Cleveland-Cliffs Double Dipper – Insider Weekends

  • May 5, 2024

As I wrap up my trip in Omaha following the Berkshire Hathaway meeting, I was excited to check out the latest crop of insider purchases.

There were insider purchases by two different trucking companies including Heartland Express  (HTLD) and J. B. Hunt (JBHT) as well as another familiar name, Hexcel (HXL) that provides the composite material used in the construction of both Boeing and Airbus planes.

The purchase that caught my eye was by two insiders of Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) that makes rolled steel products that are used in cars among other uses. Cleveland-Cliffs lost the bidding war for United States Steel (X) and the CLF CEO has been very vocal about their opposition to the Nippon deal to acquire US Steel.

My friend Shailesh who runs the Yield Guru service has been bullish on CLF for some time now and I decided to take a look when I noticed that not only were the insiders buying stock, the company also announced a large $1.5 billion buyback (a double dipper in our parlance). The buyback represented more than 14% of CLF’s market cap at announcement.

What prompted this sudden buyback and management insider purchases? The company reported a GAAP loss related to restructuring charges for shuttering one of their facilities and the market responded by delivering a 22% haircut to the stock price over the last month. The company also came in $130 million light on the revenue front.

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