Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Bank of America Analyst Says

Key Points

• Bank of America raised its price target for Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) from $9.50 to $12.50, indicating a potential upside of 5% from its previous closing price.
• Despite the recent upgrade, the company has received mixed reviews from analysts, with ratings ranging from a "strong sell" by Glj Research to "overweight" by KeyCorp.
• Cleveland-Cliffs reported a quarterly earnings loss of ($0.50) EPS, which was an improvement over analyst estimates, and a revenue increase of 7.5% year-over-year, totaling $4.93 billion.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Bank of America from $9.50 to $12.50 in a research report report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the mining company's stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Cleveland-Cliffs from $8.00 to $10.50 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. KeyCorp raised Cleveland-Cliffs from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $14.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $11.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $11.24.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CLF traded up $0.17 during trading on Monday, reaching $11.60. The company had a trading volume of 25,232,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,035,764. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.40 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 2.04 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $10.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.86. Cleveland-Cliffs has a fifty-two week low of $5.63 and a fifty-two week high of $14.34.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The mining company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.68) by $0.18. The business had revenue of $4.93 billion for 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%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 20.2% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,450,442 shares of the mining company's stock worth $208,623,000 after purchasing an additional 4,603,807 shares in the last quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the second quarter worth $63,731,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 200.4% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,329,414 shares of the mining company's stock worth $48,104,000 after purchasing an additional 4,222,528 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the second quarter worth $44,120,000. Finally, Turiya Advisors Asia Ltd purchased a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs during the second quarter worth $39,357,000. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.