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

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during 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. Currently, 8.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 14,270,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CLF has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. 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 report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup dropped 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.93.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 7.2% in the third quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 11,900 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $152,000 after buying an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.2% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 40,408 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $515,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237 shares in the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 13,270 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,313 shares during the period. Sterneck Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 7.6% during the third quarter. Sterneck Capital Management LLC now owns 19,512 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peddock Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC now owns 20,229 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,396 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

CLF traded up $0.15 during trading on Thursday, reaching $10.40. 381,111 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,289,058. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1 year low of $8.99 and a 1 year high of $22.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $10.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.20. The company has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.67 and a beta of 1.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last announced its 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). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 0.59% and a negative net margin of 2.31%. The firm had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.54 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

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.