Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Cleveland-Cliffs Call Options (NYSE:CLF)

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders bought 65,542 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 37% compared to the typical volume of 47,671 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLF has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $14.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $9.50 to $12.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $8.00 to $10.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.24.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CLF opened at $12.86 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $10.86 and its 200 day moving average is $8.95. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52 week low of $5.63 and a 52 week high of $14.34. The stock has a market cap of $6.36 billion, a PE ratio of -3.77 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The mining company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.68) by $0.18. The company had revenue of $4.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 17.97% and a negative net margin of 9.03%.Cleveland-Cliffs’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CLF. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH purchased a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 131.3% in the 2nd quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,070 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 2,310 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the 1st quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Islay Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the second quarter valued at $38,000. 67.68% of the stock is 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.