Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 42,260,000 shares, a decline of 22.2% from the December 15th total of 54,300,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 14,270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days. Currently, 8.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CLF. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They set a "buy" rating and a $16.00 target price on the stock. 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 report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Glj Research raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a "sell" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $14.27 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $16.93.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CLF traded down $0.15 on Friday, reaching $10.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,814,879 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,569,435. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 1.85. The company has a market cap of $5.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.59 and a beta of 1.97. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52-week low of $8.99 and a 52-week high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.72 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CLF. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,893,879 shares of the mining company's stock worth $330,665,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,651 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of 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 valued at $244,794,000 after buying an additional 5,621,797 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 49.9% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,093,632 shares of the mining company's stock worth $93,172,000 after buying an additional 2,027,757 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,751,153 shares of the mining company's stock worth $47,902,000 after acquiring an additional 121,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Drexel Morgan & Co. boosted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Drexel Morgan & Co. now owns 3,200,395 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $40,869,000 after acquiring an additional 116,400 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.