Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Trading 7% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)’s stock price traded up 7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $11.30 and last traded at $11.31. 8,210,020 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 16,482,117 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.57.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. 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 objective on the stock. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Glj Research decreased their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $14.54 to $12.90 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.54.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.16 and a beta of 1.96.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its earnings results 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). The business had revenue of $4.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. On average, analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, EVP Keith Koci bought 9,500 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.81 per share, with a total value of $102,695.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive vice president now directly owns 543,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,874,964.75. The trade was a 1.78 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jane M. Cronin acquired 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $10.56 per share, for a total transaction of $105,600.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 24,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $258,952.32. The trade was a 68.86 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.76% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,751,789 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $458,267,000 after purchasing an additional 2,556,332 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,893,879 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $330,665,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110,651 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 21,247,426 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $199,724,000 after acquiring an additional 647,282 shares in the last quarter. Slate Path Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 35.4% during the fourth quarter. Slate Path Capital LP now owns 16,208,000 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $152,355,000 after acquiring an additional 4,239,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,466,747 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $79,611,000 after acquiring an additional 264,078 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

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.