Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Receives $17.22 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.22.

CLF has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $15.00 to $13.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective 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.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 23.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,597,662 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $86,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069,907 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $155,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 348,105 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $5,357,000 after acquiring an additional 22,468 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors raised its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 157.7% during the second quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 52,151 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $803,000 after acquiring an additional 31,911 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 10.6% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 177,043 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,725,000 after purchasing an additional 17,004 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CLF opened at $9.24 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.53 and a beta of 1.92. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 12 month low of $9.13 and a 12 month high of $22.97. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $11.83 and its 200 day moving average is $13.06.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The mining company reported ($0.33) 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.45 EPS for the current year.

Cleveland-Cliffs Company Profile

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.