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

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders bought 63,369 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 49% compared to the average volume of 42,412 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLF has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, TheStreet lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total transaction of $132,600.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 90,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,841,834.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Cleveland-Cliffs news, Director Susan Miranda Green sold 6,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.40, for a total transaction of $132,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 90,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,841,834.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ron A. Bloom acquired 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $20.24 per share, with a total value of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 27,221 shares in the company, valued at $550,953.04. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688. Company insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 1.2% in the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 160,039 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $3,639,000 after buying an additional 1,943 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 6.7% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 325,637 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $7,405,000 after buying an additional 20,464 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management bought a new stake in Cleveland-Cliffs in the first quarter worth $1,557,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 38.0% in the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 2,980 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 821 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 1.1% in the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 143,400 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $3,261,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Down 0.4 %

CLF stock opened at $18.25 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $20.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.99. Cleveland-Cliffs has a fifty-two week low of $13.61 and a fifty-two week high of $22.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market cap of $8.67 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 2.03.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The mining company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.34 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a return on equity of 8.69% and a net margin of 1.78%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.11) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cleveland-Cliffs announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, April 22nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the mining company to repurchase up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.