Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Short Interest Down 22.2% in January

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) saw a large decrease in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 42,260,000 shares, a decrease of 22.2% from the December 31st total of 54,300,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 14,270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days. Currently, 8.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of CLF stock traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $10.26. 12,155,140 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,656,618. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1-year low of $8.99 and a 1-year high of $22.97. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $10.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.07 billion, a PE ratio of -10.57 and a beta of 1.97.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its position 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 approximately $565,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the second quarter worth approximately $552,000. Creative Planning grew its position 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 grew its position 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on CLF. Glj Research upgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, 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 target price on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.93.

Cleveland-Cliffs Company Profile

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.