Investors Purchase Large Volume of Cleveland-Cliffs Call Options (NYSE:CLF)

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 68,896 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 41% compared to the typical volume of 48,917 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CLF shares. Citigroup reduced their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price target for the company. Finally, Glj Research raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.68.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 3.2 %

NYSE CLF traded down $0.36 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $10.80. 36,558,582 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 16,524,256. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.13 and a beta of 1.96. 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 twelve month low of $8.99 and a twelve month high of $22.97. The business’s 50-day moving average is $10.24 and its 200-day moving average is $11.69.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 24th. The mining company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.65) by ($0.03). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. The business had revenue of $4.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 105.6% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 262,771 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $3,429,000 after acquiring an additional 134,939 shares in the last quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the fourth quarter worth approximately $18,999,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 987.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 207,000 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,644,000 after buying an additional 187,957 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the third quarter valued at approximately $22,122,000. Finally, First Dallas Securities Inc. grew its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 27.9% during the third quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 206,750 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $2,640,000 after buying an additional 45,150 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.