Why Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Popped by Nearly 21% This Week

Key Points

• The company notched a double beat in its second quarter.

• This, despite erosion on both the top and bottom lines.

• 10 stocks we like better than Cleveland-Cliffs ›

One of the better-performing industrial stocks over the past few days has been storied steel maker Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF). The company did better than expected in its second quarter. As often occurs in that situation, several analysts became more bullish on its prospects. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, Cleveland-Cliffs rose by almost 21% across the week.

Second-quarter surprises

On Monday, Cleveland-Cliffs published its latest earnings report, revealing that Q2 revenue was $4.9 billion, while its net loss came in at $247 million. Although both metrics are worse than the year-ago figures, they were higher than the consensus analyst estimates (particularly for the bottom line).

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Those optimistic analyst updates reinforced the double beat, especially since one of them took the form of a recommendation upgrade.

This came from KeyBanc's Philip Gibbs, who now feels Cleveland-Cliffs is worthy of an overweight (read: buy) designation. Previously, he had ranked it as a sector weight (hold). Gibbs's new price target is $14 per share, which is 22% above where the stock currently sits.

Analysts at the similarly named J.P. Morgan (a unit of JPMorgan Chase) and Morgan Stanley raised their price targets on the stock, meanwhile.

The former's Bill Peterson cranked his more than 30% higher to $10 per share, although he maintained his neutral recommendation. The latter's Carlos De Alba set a new target of $10.50 per share from $8.00. Like Peterson, he kept his equivalent of a hold rating intact.

In this time of tariffs

Cleveland-Cliffs has also been in the news because of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Yet the President has shown a clear strategy of negotiating these down, in certain instances quite substantially, so they likely won't have as much of an impact as previously believed by many.

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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.