Cleveland-Cliffs Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:CLF)

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors acquired 75,548 call options on the company. This is an increase of 39% compared to the typical volume of 54,372 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CLF shares. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $17.00 target price (down from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced 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 research note on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Glj Research reduced their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $14.54 to $12.90 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cleveland-Cliffs has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.02.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.85, for a total value of $822,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 492,249 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,371,905.65. This represents a 19.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Keith Koci bought 9,500 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 purchase, the executive vice president now owns 543,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,874,964.75. This trade represents a 1.78% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 23,500 shares of company stock valued at $243,095. Company insiders own 1.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CLF. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Can acquired a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at about $55,453,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,381,000. Slate Path Capital LP lifted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. Slate Path Capital LP now owns 16,208,000 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $152,355,000 after purchasing an additional 4,239,000 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP acquired a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 1st quarter valued at about $22,696,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.5% in the 4th 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. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded down $0.10 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $6.38. 53,045,636 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,722,536. The company has a 50 day moving average of $7.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.65. Cleveland-Cliffs has a fifty-two week low of $6.05 and a fifty-two week high of $17.41. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.58 and a beta of 2.03.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The mining company reported ($0.92) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.78) by ($0.14). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 0.59% and a negative net margin of 2.31%. The business had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.18 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.