The gains that Cliffs has made may not just be from iron ore prices alone. Undoubtedly, the shares dropping roughly 52% to close $7.32 on Friday, from its relative high in September of $15.40, has attracted short sellers. The stock’s bounce should also be attributed to short covering, after the short sellers had to cover to lock in their gains or to get out of the way.
Short interest in Cliffs for the September 30 settlement date was recorded as 59.8 million, with 5.6 days to cover. This is the greatest number of shares short in the past 52-weeks. Short interest has increased consistently since the late-August reading. Here are some of the key analyst downgrades and analyst notes against Cliffs in the past two weeks:
- J.P. Morgan downgraded Cliffs to Neutral from Overweight and dropped the price target to $5 from $18.
- Nomura downgraded Cliffs to Reduce from Buy and dropped the price target to $5 from $18.
- Wells Fargo downgraded Cliffs to Underperform and reduced its valuation range to $4 to $7.
- Goldman Sachs maintained a Neutral rating but cut its price target to $8.
Shares of Cliffs were trading up 12% Tuesday, at $9.25, from the previous close of $8.25. The range on the day was $8.35 to $9.96. Even at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the stock volume was a sharp 16 million — roughly double a normal day’s trading volume.
The shares have a consensus analyst target price of $12.46 and a 52-week trading range of $7.00 to $28.98. Cliffs has a market cap of roughly $1.5 billion.
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