Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) saw a large decrease in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 39,310,000 shares, a decrease of 5.9% from the August 15th total of 41,760,000 shares. Currently, 8.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,360,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock opened at $11.81 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.73. Cleveland-Cliffs has a fifty-two week low of $10.21 and a fifty-two week high of $22.97. The firm has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.96, a P/E/G ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 1.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The mining company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 0.21% and a return on equity of 4.94%. The company had revenue of $5.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.69 EPS. Cleveland-Cliffs’s revenue was down 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 0.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CLF. Rise Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 2,858.0% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,479 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 1,429 shares during the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,700 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 247.8% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,885 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 1,343 shares during the period. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the first quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $18.00 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.75.

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.