Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) Competitors

United States Steel (NYSE:X) and Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, community ranking, valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Is X or CLF a better dividend stock?

United States Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Cleveland-Cliffs pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. United States Steel pays out 13.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cleveland-Cliffs pays out -15.2% 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. Cleveland-Cliffs is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has better valuation and earnings, X or CLF?

Cleveland-Cliffs has higher revenue and earnings than United States Steel. Cleveland-Cliffs is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United States Steel, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United States Steel	$15.64B	0.60	$384M	$1.49	27.78
Cleveland-Cliffs	$19.19B	0.18	$399M	-$1.58	-4.52

Do analysts prefer X or CLF?

United States Steel currently has a consensus target price of $40.65, suggesting a potential downside of 1.80%. Cleveland-Cliffs has a consensus target price of $16.24, suggesting a potential upside of 127.23%. Given Cleveland-Cliffs' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cleveland-Cliffs is more favorable than United States Steel.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United States Steel	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
Cleveland-Cliffs	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in X or CLF?

81.9% of United States Steel shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.7% of Cleveland-Cliffs shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of United States Steel shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Cleveland-Cliffs shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk and volatility, X or CLF?

United States Steel has a beta of 1.79, suggesting that its stock price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cleveland-Cliffs has a beta of 1.93, suggesting that its stock price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer X or CLF?

In the previous week, United States Steel had 7 more articles in the media than Cleveland-Cliffs. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for United States Steel and 17 mentions for Cleveland-Cliffs. United States Steel's average media sentiment score of 0.86 beat Cleveland-Cliffs' score of 0.51 indicating that United States Steel is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
United States Steel	8 Very Positive mention(s)	8 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Cleveland-Cliffs	7 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor X or CLF?

United States Steel received 206 more outperform votes than Cleveland-Cliffs when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 55.53% of users gave United States Steel an outperform vote while only 53.30% of users gave Cleveland-Cliffs an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
United States Steel	Outperform Votes 924 55.53%	Underperform Votes 740 44.47%
Cleveland-Cliffs	Outperform Votes 718 53.30%	Underperform Votes 629 46.70%

Is X or CLF more profitable?

United States Steel has a net margin of 2.46% compared to Cleveland-Cliffs' net margin of -2.31%. United States Steel's return on equity of 4.27% beat Cleveland-Cliffs' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United States Steel	2.46%	4.27%	2.40%
Cleveland-Cliffs	-2.31%	-0.59%	-0.26%

Summary

United States Steel beats Cleveland-Cliffs on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.