Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF)

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders acquired 53,775 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 6% compared to the average daily volume of 50,501 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Edilson Camara purchased 19,700 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $10.13 per share, with a total value of $199,561.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 41,983 shares in the company, valued at approximately $425,287.79. This trade represents a 88.41% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 3,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.42, for a total transaction of $37,260,000.00. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 1.71% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Focus Partners Wealth purchased a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 1st quarter valued at about $339,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the second quarter worth about $416,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $222,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 18.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 62,267 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $473,000 after acquiring an additional 9,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 188,904 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,436,000 after acquiring an additional 4,088 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CLF has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $14.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. KeyCorp downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Glj Research dropped their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $9.52 to $9.42 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, November 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.89.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE CLF traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $10.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 24,197,817 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,414,789. The stock has a market cap of $6.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.61 and a beta of 1.93. Cleveland-Cliffs has a one year low of $5.63 and a one year high of $16.70. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $13.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 9th. The mining company reported ($0.43) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $4.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.60 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 7.91% and a negative return on equity of 18.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.68) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Cleveland-Cliffs

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc is a leading North American producer of iron ore pellets and flat-rolled steel products. Tracing its roots to 1847, the company has evolved from an iron-ore mining concern in the Great Lakes region into a fully integrated steelmaker. Today, Cleveland-Cliffs operates iron ore mining complexes in Michigan and Minnesota as well as steelmaking and finishing facilities across the United States.

The company’s integrated platform begins with direct control of key raw materials, including iron ore and scrap, and extends through every stage of steel production.