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 business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.
Cleveland-Cliffs presently has a consensus target price of $11.93, suggesting a potential downside of 14.92%. Steel Dynamics has a consensus target price of $149.89, suggesting a potential upside of 3.56%. Given Steel Dynamics' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Steel Dynamics is more favorable than Cleveland-Cliffs.
Cleveland-Cliffs has a beta of 1.96, indicating that its stock price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Steel Dynamics has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
Cleveland-Cliffs pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Steel Dynamics pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. 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 raised 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 insiders. Comparatively, 6.3% of Steel Dynamics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Cleveland-Cliffs had 13 more articles in the media than Steel Dynamics. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for Cleveland-Cliffs and 22 mentions for Steel Dynamics. Steel Dynamics' average media sentiment score of 1.21 beat Cleveland-Cliffs' score of 0.04 indicating that Steel Dynamics is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Summary
Steel Dynamics beats Cleveland-Cliffs on 14 of the 19 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 10/16/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
