Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $17.22.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $15.00 to $13.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price objective for the company.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

CLF stock opened at $9.46 on Thursday. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $12.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.13. Cleveland-Cliffs has a one year low of $9.13 and a one year high of $22.97. The company has a market capitalization of $4.67 billion, a PE ratio of -9.75 and a beta of 1.93.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The mining company reported ($0.33) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $4.57 billion for 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%. Cleveland-Cliffs’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.54 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

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

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.