Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Short Interest Update

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 42,260,000 shares, a decline of 22.2% from the December 31st total of 54,300,000 shares. Approximately 8.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 14,270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE CLF traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $10.26. 12,155,140 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,656,618. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.85. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52 week low of $8.99 and a 52 week high of $22.97. The company has a market cap of $5.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.57 and a beta of 1.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $10.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.14.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The mining company reported ($0.33) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by ($0.02). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. The firm had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.69 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on CLF shares. Glj Research raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.93.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 162.3% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 58,667 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $842,000 after acquiring an additional 36,300 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the second quarter worth $565,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the second quarter worth $552,000. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 39.2% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 118,761 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,828,000 after acquiring an additional 33,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 1.1% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 355,171 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $5,466,000 after acquiring an additional 3,939 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Cleveland-Cliffs

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.