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

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 34,810,000 shares, a growth of 11.9% from the May 31st total of 31,110,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 8,630,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days. Approximately 7.5% of the company's stock are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ben Oren acquired 6,700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $14.99 per share, with a total value of $100,433.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 14,167 shares in the company, valued at $212,363.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Celso L. Goncalves, Jr. acquired 7,250 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $14.98 per share, with a total value of $108,605.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 314,362 shares in the company, valued at $4,709,142.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ben Oren bought 6,700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were bought at an average price of $14.99 per share, with a total value of $100,433.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 14,167 shares in the company, valued at $212,363.33. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired 98,950 shares of company stock valued at $1,639,638 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.76% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the 3rd quarter worth about $52,000. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 483,676 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $7,560,000 after purchasing an additional 14,030 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 37.2% in the 3rd quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 43,582 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $681,000 after purchasing an additional 11,807 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 83,605 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $1,307,000 after purchasing an additional 9,342 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 108.7% in the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 343,465 shares of the mining company's stock valued at $5,368,000 after purchasing an additional 178,864 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company's stock.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of CLF traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $15.38. The stock had a trading volume of 6,349,583 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,913,855. The company's fifty day moving average is $16.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52 week low of $13.84 and a 52 week high of $22.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 2.03.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.01). Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 1.78%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.11) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, April 22nd that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the mining company to reacquire up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on CLF. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their target price for the company from $23.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $19.44.

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.