Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF)

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 75,388 call options on the company. This is an increase of 69% compared to the average daily volume of 44,684 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 572.4% in the fourth quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 18,083,029 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $240,143,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393,507 shares in the last quarter. Turiya Advisors Asia Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in the fourth quarter valued at about $96,280,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,391,397 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $722,318,000 after purchasing an additional 6,447,462 shares in the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 90.1% in the fourth quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 12,358,230 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $164,117,000 after purchasing an additional 5,855,830 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,450,442 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $208,623,000 after purchasing an additional 4,603,807 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CLF has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Barclays initiated coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Thursday. They set an “underweight” rating and a $9.00 price objective for the company. Glj Research reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $9.42 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Monday, March 16th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. They set a “sector weight” rating for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $10.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research note on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $11.49.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Up 5.0%

NYSE:CLF traded up $0.56 on Tuesday, reaching $11.79. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,067,098 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,745,850. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1-year low of $5.63 and a 1-year high of $16.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 2.02. The firm has a market cap of $6.73 billion, a PE ratio of -5.04 and a beta of 2.00. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $9.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.32.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 20th. The mining company reported ($0.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by $0.04. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative return on equity of 15.48% and a negative net margin of 6.42%.The firm had revenue of $4.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.92) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cleveland-Cliffs Company Profile

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc is a leading North American producer of iron ore pellets and flat-rolled steel products. Tracing its roots to 1847, the company has evolved from an iron-ore mining concern in the Great Lakes region into a fully integrated steelmaker. Today, Cleveland-Cliffs operates iron ore mining complexes in Michigan and Minnesota as well as steelmaking and finishing facilities across the United States.

The company’s integrated platform begins with direct control of key raw materials, including iron ore and scrap, and extends through every stage of steel production.