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

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $12.3611.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Glj Research restated a “sell” rating and set a $5.75 target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $8.00 to $10.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Bank of America boosted their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $14.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $10.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $14.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CLF. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 2nd quarter valued at about $63,731,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,120,000. Turiya Advisors Asia Ltd bought a new position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the 2nd quarter valued at about $39,357,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.2% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,450,442 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $208,623,000 after acquiring an additional 4,603,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 200.4% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,329,414 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $48,104,000 after acquiring an additional 4,222,528 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

Shares of CLF stock opened at $13.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The firm has a market cap of $6.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.93 and a beta of 1.96. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 12 month low of $5.63 and a 12 month high of $16.70.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 20th. The mining company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 20.02% and a negative net margin of 9.00%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.33) EPS. Research analysts expect that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 EPS for the current year.

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.