Cleveland-Cliffs Stock Is Sinking Thursday: What's Going On?

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. CLF stock is trading lower Thursday after the company reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday after the market closed.

The Details: The company reported a loss of 92 cents per share, missing the consensus estimate of a 75 cent-loss. In addition, Cliffs reported sales of $4.63 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $4.64 billion.

During the quarter, Cliffs made the decision to fully or partially idle six facilities to optimize its footprint and reposition away from loss-making operations. Some of the now idle facilities include the Steelton, Pennsylvania rail facility and the Riverdale, Illinois compact strip mill facility.

These actions are anticipated to produce about $300 million in savings annually for the company.

Furthermore, the company will no longer be deploying capital toward the development of a transformer production plant in Weirton, West Virginia.

Lourenco Goncalves, Cliffs’ Chairman, President and CEO, said: “Our first-quarter results were negatively impacted by underperforming non-core assets and the lagging effect of lower index prices in late 2024 and early 2025. As a result, we are taking decisive action to streamline our operations and enhance efficiency. This will drive meaningful fixed cost savings and sharpen our focus on our core strength: supplying steel to the automotive industry.”

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CLF Price Action: At the time of writing, Cliffs stock is trading 15.8% lower at $7.14, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image: This illustration was generated using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.