Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) closed at $16.49 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.48% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.75% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.05%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 7.84%.

Coming into today, shares of the mining company had gained 4.97% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 0.18%, while the S&P 500 lost 4.4%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Cleveland-Cliffs as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of -$0.29, down 116.29% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.4 billion, up 0.95% from the year-ago period.

CLF's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.63 per share and revenue of $23.33 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -55.2% and +14.11%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Cleveland-Cliffs. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.82% lower. Cleveland-Cliffs is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

 

Digging into valuation, Cleveland-Cliffs currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.18. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.64.

The Mining - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 95, putting it in the top 38% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.