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

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 57,175 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 35% compared to the typical volume of 42,444 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,662,000. Dakota Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 68.1% in the second quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 115,124 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,772,000 after purchasing an additional 46,642 shares during the period. Carnegie Investment Counsel raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 17.9% in the second quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 90,057 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,386,000 after purchasing an additional 13,662 shares in the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 57.1% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 9,665 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 3,514 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on CLF shares. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $18.00 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $15.00 to $13.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.39.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of CLF traded down $0.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,396,897 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,558,938. 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 $4.90 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.26 and a beta of 1.92. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1-year low of $9.62 and a 1-year high of $22.97. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.45.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The mining company reported ($0.33) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by ($0.02). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. The company had revenue of $4.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. Cleveland-Cliffs’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.45 earnings per share 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.