Cleveland-Cliffs Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:CLF)

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 92,009 call options on the company. This is an increase of 184% compared to the typical daily volume of 32,440 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 54.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 15,906,597 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $244,794,000 after acquiring an additional 5,621,797 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 49.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at $117,585,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in 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 worth $86,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069,907 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castle Hook Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.8% during the first quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 3,374,716 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $76,741,000 after buying an additional 410,182 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

NYSE CLF opened at $11.92 on Friday. Cleveland-Cliffs has a fifty-two week low of $10.21 and a fifty-two week high of $22.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 1.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.11, a PEG ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 1.97. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.85.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The mining company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $5.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.18 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 0.21% and a return on equity of 4.94%. The business’s revenue was down 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.69 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 0.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CLF has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Monday, May 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $22.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Cleveland-Cliffs from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Bank of America cut their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.75.

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.