StockNews.com Downgrades Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) to Sell

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup decreased their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $18.00 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $15.00 to $13.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.56.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Down 4.3 %

CLF stock traded down $0.60 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $13.34. The stock had a trading volume of 23,183,870 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,185,830. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1-year low of $10.21 and a 1-year high of $22.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $12.63 and a 200 day moving average of $14.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.75 and a beta of 1.97.

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 the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $4.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.72 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 0.58% and a negative net margin of 2.31%. The business’s revenue was down 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 25,053 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $570,000 after acquiring an additional 476 shares during the period. Altus Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 11,900 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $152,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares during the period. InterOcean Capital Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC now owns 20,334 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $462,000 after acquiring an additional 805 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 13,066 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $201,000 after acquiring an additional 949 shares during the period. Finally, Chesapeake Capital Corp IL lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL now owns 33,482 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $761,000 after acquiring an additional 979 shares during the period. 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.