Forensic Analysis · Materials / Mining & Chemicals · as of Aug 11, 2026

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)

A forensic read on Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.

D · Weak — demands caution

Forensic grade

Distress

Financial health

1.0

Distress distance

Clean

Earnings quality

Forensic signals

-7.4

P / E (ttm)

-24.2%

ROE

$7.1B

Market cap

0.00%

Dividend yield

-3.0%

Revenue growth

This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.0, placing it in the Distress zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.

What the filings flag

-7.5%

FY2025

Return on invested capital. Return on invested capital is -7.5% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 10% — well below its ~8% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.

stopped

FY2024→FY2025

Shareholder returns — halted. Capital returns have STOPPED — $733M of buybacks + dividends in FY2024, but ~$0 in FY2025. A halt usually means the company is conserving cash.

$125M

FY2023–FY2023

Goodwill impairments. Took $125M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2023 ($125M)) — about 32% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.

-70%

FY2012→FY2013

Dividend — cut. The payout was CUT ~70% in FY2013 (from FY2012) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies. Measured on total dividend dollars rather than per share: the reported share count steps sharply around FY2019, a stock-split seam between filing vintages rather than a change in the payout, and a split leaves the dollars paid untouched.

Key fundamentals

Latest Revenue$18.61B

Revenue Growth YoY-3.0%

Revenue CAGR (3yr)-6.8%

Net Margin-7.9%

Free Cash Flow-$1.02B

Return on Equity-24.2%

Debt / Equity1.19x

The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?

Generate the AI investment read →

No credit card · informational only, not investment advice · see the track record

← Browse all forensic stock analyses

Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Aug 11, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.