Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Trading Up 5.6% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) shot up 5.6% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $10.52 and last traded at $10.45. 5,197,359 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 61% from the average session volume of 13,202,906 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.90.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CLF. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $15.00 to $13.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Citigroup reduced 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 note on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Glj Research upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.93.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average is $11.37 and its 200-day moving average is $12.81. The company has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a PE ratio of -10.38 and a beta of 1.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.85.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The mining company reported ($0.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.72 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. Cleveland-Cliffs’s revenue was down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.54 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 105.6% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 262,771 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $3,429,000 after purchasing an additional 134,939 shares during the last quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 58.5% in the 3rd quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 133,717 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,708,000 after purchasing an additional 49,359 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 987.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 207,000 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $2,644,000 after buying an additional 187,957 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 3rd quarter worth $22,122,000. Finally, First Dallas Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 27.9% during the 3rd quarter. First Dallas Securities Inc. now owns 206,750 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $2,640,000 after acquiring an additional 45,150 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

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.