Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Short Interest Down 22.2% in December

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 42,260,000 shares, a drop of 22.2% from the December 15th total of 54,300,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 14,270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days. Currently, 8.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 299.8% in the third quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 1,987 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 1,490 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the second quarter worth $26,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth $34,000. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 231.9% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,634 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 2,539 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of CLF traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $10.46. 4,408,466 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,753,526. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.59. The firm has a market cap of $5.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.78 and a beta of 1.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52 week low of $8.99 and a 52 week high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $4.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.72 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.59%. The business’s revenue was down 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.54 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.67 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CLF. 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 note on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Glj Research upgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price objective for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $16.93.

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.