Analyst Estimates: Here's What Brokers Think Of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) After Its Full-Year Report

It's been a sad week for Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF), who've watched their investment drop 11% to US$10.57 in the week since the company reported its yearly result. The statutory results were not great - while revenues of US$19b were in line with expectations,Cleveland-Cliffs lost US$1.57 a share in the process. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. So we collected the latest post-earnings statutory consensus estimates to see what could be in store for next year.

See our latest analysis for Cleveland-Cliffs

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus from Cleveland-Cliffs' eight analysts is for revenues of US$20.4b in 2025. This would reflect a satisfactory 6.3% increase on its revenue over the past 12 months. Losses are predicted to fall substantially, shrinking 82% to US$0.27. Before this earnings announcement, the analysts had been modelling revenues of US$20.5b and losses of US$0.69 per share in 2025. Although the revenue estimates have not really changed Cleveland-Cliffs'future looks a little different to the past, with a very favorable reduction to the loss per share forecasts in particular.

There's been no major changes to the consensus price target of US$12.39, suggesting that reduced loss estimates are not enough to have a long-term positive impact on the stock's valuation. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. There are some variant perceptions on Cleveland-Cliffs, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$20.00 and the most bearish at US$7.00 per share. So we wouldn't be assigning too much credibility to analyst price targets in this case, because there are clearly some widely different views on what kind of performance this business can generate. As a result it might not be a great idea to make decisions based on the consensus price target, which is after all just an average of this wide range of estimates.

Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. We would highlight that Cleveland-Cliffs' revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 6.3% annualised growth rate until the end of 2025 being well below the historical 27% p.a. growth over the last five years. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 4.4% per year. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Cleveland-Cliffs is also expected to grow faster than the wider industry.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that the analysts reconfirmed their loss per share estimates for next year. Fortunately, they also reconfirmed their revenue numbers, suggesting that it's tracking in line with expectations. Additionally, our data suggests that revenue is expected to grow faster than the wider industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.

With that in mind, we wouldn't be too quick to come to a conclusion on Cleveland-Cliffs. Long-term earnings power is much more important than next year's profits. We have forecasts for Cleveland-Cliffs going out to 2027, and you can see them free on our platform here.

Before you take the next step you should know about the 1 warning sign for Cleveland-Cliffs that we have uncovered.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.