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

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 68,896 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 41% compared to the average daily volume of 48,917 call options.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

NYSE CLF opened at $10.80 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.13 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $10.26 and its 200-day moving average is $11.67. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 12-month low of $8.99 and a 12-month high of $22.97.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The mining company reported ($0.68) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.65) by ($0.03). Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 0.59% and a negative net margin of 2.31%. The company had revenue of $4.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.46 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Glj Research raised shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group started 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 on the stock. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.68.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CLF. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,751,789 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $458,267,000 after acquiring an additional 2,556,332 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.7% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,893,879 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $330,665,000 after purchasing an additional 3,110,651 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 21,247,426 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $199,724,000 after purchasing an additional 647,282 shares during the last quarter. Slate Path Capital LP raised its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. Slate Path Capital LP now owns 16,208,000 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $152,355,000 after purchasing an additional 4,239,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,466,747 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $79,611,000 after purchasing an additional 264,078 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

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.