- Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF +9.2%) surges after Q4 earnings and revenues easily beat estimates, driven by a surge in iron ore pellet sales.
- CLF says Q4 sales volume in its U.S. iron ore pellet business rose 53% Y/Y to nearly 6.9M metric tons, and it expects FY 2017 U.S. iron ore sales volume to gain 4.3% to 19M metric tons from 18.2M in 2016.
- CLF expects to generate $850M of adjusted EBITDA in 2017, based on January iron ore and steel prices remaining consistent with January levels; adjusted EBITDA was $374M in 2016 and $293M in 2015.
- CLF's total debt at year-end 2016 was $2.2B, vs. $2.7B at the end of 2015.