Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Short Interest Update

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) saw a significant drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 231,700 shares, a drop of 18.6% from the February 13th total of 284,700 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 94,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Approximately 2.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ZEUS. KeyCorp raised their price target on Olympic Steel from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com cut Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its holdings in Olympic Steel by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 25,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $833,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Olympic Steel by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 7,517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 770 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Olympic Steel by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 22,080 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Olympic Steel by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,891 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $456,000 after acquiring an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in Olympic Steel by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 65,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,137,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.07% of the company’s stock.

Olympic Steel Price Performance

ZEUS stock opened at $32.24 on Wednesday. Olympic Steel has a 52-week low of $30.29 and a 52-week high of $73.27. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $359.02 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.37 and a beta of 1.48.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.05. Olympic Steel had a return on equity of 3.31% and a net margin of 1.18%. The business had revenue of $418.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $441.60 million. Equities research analysts expect that Olympic Steel will post 2.69 EPS for the current year.

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. This is a boost from Olympic Steel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.49%.

Olympic Steel Company Profile

Olympic Steel, Inc processes, distributes, and stores metal products primarily in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It operates in three segments: Carbon Flat Products; Specialty Metals Flat Products; and Tubular and Pipe Products. The company offers stainless steel and aluminum coil and sheet products, angles, rounds, and flat bars; alloy, heat treated, and abrasion resistant coils, sheets and plates; coated metals, including galvanized, galvannealed, electro galvanized, advanced high strength steels, aluminized, and automotive grades of steel; commercial quality, advanced high strength steel, drawing steel, and automotive grades cold rolled steel coil and sheet products; hot rolled carbon comprising hot rolled coil, pickled and oiled sheet and plate steel products, automotive grades, advanced high strength steels, and high strength low alloys; tube, pipe, and bar products, including round, square, and rectangular mechanical and structural tubing; hydraulic and stainless tubing; boiler tubing; carbon, stainless, and aluminum pipes; valves and fittings; and tin mill products, such as electrolytic tinplate, electrolytic chromium coated steel, and black plates.