Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 42,180,000 shares, a drop of 8.2% from the January 15th total of 45,940,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 15,720,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days. Approximately 8.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Up 4.7 %

Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock opened at $12.03 on Wednesday. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 52-week low of $8.99 and a 52-week high of $22.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.94 billion, a PE ratio of -12.40 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $10.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.74.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CLF. Glj Research upgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $14.27 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Cleveland-Cliffs in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $13.00 to $11.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $12.50 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.68.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLF. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,751,789 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $458,267,000 after buying an additional 2,556,332 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.7% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,893,879 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $330,665,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110,651 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 21,247,426 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $199,724,000 after acquiring an additional 647,282 shares during the period. Slate Path Capital LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 35.4% during the fourth quarter. Slate Path Capital LP now owns 16,208,000 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $152,355,000 after acquiring an additional 4,239,000 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,466,747 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $79,611,000 after purchasing an additional 264,078 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

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.