Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Short Interest Update

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 54,300,000 shares, an increase of 22.9% from the November 30th total of 44,170,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 13,680,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days. Currently, 11.2% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 54.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 15,906,597 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $244,794,000 after acquiring an additional 5,621,797 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,893,879 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $330,665,000 after buying an additional 3,110,651 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 232.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,113,337 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $39,757,000 after acquiring an additional 2,176,837 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 49.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,093,632 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $93,172,000 after purchasing an additional 2,027,757 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth approximately $22,122,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $15.00 to $13.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price on the stock. Three 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.22.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock traded up $0.21 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,795,646 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,815,186. Cleveland-Cliffs has a fifty-two week low of $8.99 and a fifty-two week high of $22.97. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $11.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.99. 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 firm has a market cap of $4.70 billion, a PE ratio of -9.80 and a beta of 1.93.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The mining company reported ($0.33) earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.54 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.45 EPS 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.