Forensic Analysis · Energy / Oil & Gas · as of Jun 27, 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.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
0.9
Altman Z-score
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-20.9%
ROE
$5.7B
Market cap
CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC. earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its Altman Z-score is 0.9, 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%Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -7% and slipping from 10% — well below its ~8% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
stoppedShareholder 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; understand why before reading it as neutral.
$125MGoodwill impairments.Took $125M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year(s) (FY2023 ($125M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them — worth weighing on capital-allocation skill.
-43%Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~43% in FY2020 (from FY2019). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies — weigh the cut when judging reliability.
Key fundamentals
Net Margin-7.9%
Debt / Equity1.19x
Free Cash Flow$-1.02B
Latest Revenue$18.61B
Return on Equity-24.2%
Revenue Growth YoY-3.0%
Go deeper — free with an account
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. An account adds the full interactive deep-dive on CLEVELAND-CLIFFS INC.:
🔒The written investment read — what the numbers mean, in plain English
🔒Ask anything about CLF's filings — AI Q&A across the 10-K, 10-Qs & 8-Ks
🔒Interactive valuation — reverse-DCF sliders, Monte Carlo & scenario stress
🔒Calibrated 12-month price forecast, with the math shown