UPDATE: Axiom Capital Upgrades Cliffs Natural Resources On Valuation

In a report published Wednesday, Axiom Capital analyst Gordon L. Johnson II upgraded the rating on

from Sell to Hold, but lowered the price target from $10.00 to $9.00. In the report, Axiom Capital noted, “Since our initiation of coverage, CLF's shares have corrected roughly -55%; with the stock now trading at a ~8x EV/EBITDA multiple on our 2015 ests. (& pricing in $80/mt iron ore, which was the crux of our initial short call on CLF), we move to the sidelines as we believe the forward market multiple will be based more on mgmt decisions vs. market fundamentals over the n-term; while we see limited upside for iron ore prices through C4Q14, & thus CLF's earnings prospects, we see increased chatter around asset divestitures/mgmt-plans fueling volatility around the stock; as such, we move our rating to HOLD from SELL.” Cliffs Natural Resources Inc closed on Tuesday at $9.07.