CLF vs. STLD, CMC, NUE, RS, CRS, ATI, WOR, ZEUS, PKX, and TX
Should you be buying Cleveland-Cliffs stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Cleveland-Cliffs include Steel Dynamics (STLD), Commercial Metals (CMC), Nucor (NUE), Reliance (RS), Carpenter Technology (CRS), ATI (ATI), Worthington Enterprises (WOR), Olympic Steel (ZEUS), POSCO (PKX), and Ternium (TX).
Cleveland-Cliffs vs. Its Competitors
Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) and Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ:STLD) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, media sentiment, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.
Cleveland-Cliffs pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Steel Dynamics pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Cleveland-Cliffs pays out -7.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Steel Dynamics pays out 29.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Steel Dynamics has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Cleveland-Cliffs is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Steel Dynamics has a net margin of 6.07% compared to Cleveland-Cliffs' net margin of -9.03%. Steel Dynamics' return on equity of 11.88% beat Cleveland-Cliffs' return on equity.
67.7% of Cleveland-Cliffs shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.4% of Steel Dynamics shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Cleveland-Cliffs shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of Steel Dynamics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Steel Dynamics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Cleveland-Cliffs. Cleveland-Cliffs is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Steel Dynamics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Steel Dynamics had 9 more articles in the media than Cleveland-Cliffs. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Steel Dynamics and 12 mentions for Cleveland-Cliffs. Steel Dynamics' average media sentiment score of 1.66 beat Cleveland-Cliffs' score of 1.36 indicating that Steel Dynamics is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Cleveland-Cliffs presently has a consensus price target of $10.96, indicating a potential upside of 2.26%. Steel Dynamics has a consensus price target of $148.70, indicating a potential upside of 13.39%. Given Steel Dynamics' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Steel Dynamics is more favorable than Cleveland-Cliffs.
Cleveland-Cliffs has a beta of 1.99, meaning that its stock price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Steel Dynamics has a beta of 1.38, meaning that its stock price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Steel Dynamics beats Cleveland-Cliffs on 16 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CLF and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Cleveland-Cliffs Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:CLF) was last updated on 8/28/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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