NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF) - Get Report are lower by 5.88% to $6.24 in early afternoon trading on Friday, as iron ore prices fell to a six year low on Thursday afternoon on the heels of China's slower growth rate announcement.

The price of iron ore delivered to China declined by 4.5% late Thursday afternoon to $59.30 a metric ton. This was the steel making raw material's lowest level since March 2009, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Earlier this week China shook up the market by reducing its annual growth estimate to 7%, which is lower than last year's target of close to 7.5%, and actual growth of 7.4%, the Journal added.

China buys three in every five tons of iron ore transported by sea.

Last year the country's steel demand growth was already at its slowest in over a decade, the Journal noted.

Additionally, on Thursday afternoon Cliffs Natural Resources announced that it increased the size of its exchange offers for senior notes to $1.25 billion from $750 million.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC as a Sell with a ratings score of D-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC (CLF) a SELL. This is driven by several weaknesses, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, weak operating cash flow, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Metals & Mining industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 2986.8% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $43.30 million to -$1,250.00 million.
• Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 65.78%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 4225.00% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.
• Net operating cash flow has decreased to $254.90 million or 44.58% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite a decrease in cash flow CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC is still fairing well by exceeding its industry average cash flow growth rate of -57.24%.
• CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC has experienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. The company has reported a trend of declining earnings per share over the past year. However, the consensus estimate suggests that this trend should reverse in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, CLIFFS NATURAL RESOURCES INC swung to a loss, reporting -$47.29 versus $2.33 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.11 versus -$47.29).
• CLF, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 2.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 15.2%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: CLF Ratings Report