Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Shares Up 5.7% – Should You Buy?

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)’s share price was up 5.7% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $10.49 and last traded at $10.46. Approximately 13,381,511 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 16% from the average daily volume of 15,991,096 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.90.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on CLF. StockNews.com cut Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley cut 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 report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Glj Research upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cleveland-Cliffs has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.93.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Up 5.8 %

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 firm has a market capitalization of $5.17 billion, a PE ratio of -10.79 and a beta of 1.97. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.67.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.72 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 0.59% and a negative net margin of 2.31%. Cleveland-Cliffs’s quarterly revenue was down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. will post -0.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,893,879 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $330,665,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,651 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 54.7% during the 2nd 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 grew its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 49.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,093,632 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $93,172,000 after purchasing an additional 2,027,757 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $47,902,000 after purchasing an additional 121,389 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Drexel Morgan & Co. grew its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.8% during the third quarter. Drexel Morgan & Co. now owns 3,200,395 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $40,869,000 after buying an additional 116,400 shares during the period. 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.