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

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 63,119 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 20% compared to the average daily volume of 52,541 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLF has been the topic of several analyst reports. B. Riley reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $17.00 price target (down from $20.00) on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $7.50 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Monday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $7.50 to $8.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.25 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Glj Research cut shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a "strong-buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating and set a $3.91 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $9.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cleveland-Cliffs

In other news, EVP James D. Graham sold 120,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.85, for a total value of $822,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 492,249 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,371,905.65. This trade represents a 19.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cleveland-Cliffs

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Cleveland-Cliffs in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,835,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 487.8% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,990 shares of the mining company's stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 4,971 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 17,848 shares of the mining company's stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 1,479 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 27.2% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 16,362 shares of the mining company's stock worth $154,000 after acquiring an additional 3,495 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 113,897 shares of the mining company's stock worth $1,071,000 after acquiring an additional 3,940 shares in the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CLF traded up $1.30 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $10.78. 24,572,728 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,833,515. The company has a current ratio of 2.13, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1 year low of $5.63 and a 1 year high of $16.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.78. The stock has a market cap of $5.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.43 and a beta of 1.91.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The mining company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.68) by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $4.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.90 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 6.35% and a negative return on equity of 12.84%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.11 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.