Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) was the target of a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 368,000 shares, a growth of 124.9% from the September 30th total of 163,600 shares. Currently, 3.8% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 180,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Olympic Steel by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 141,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,358,000 after buying an additional 25,201 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Olympic Steel by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 681,512 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,306,000 after buying an additional 12,242 shares during the period. Unison Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Olympic Steel during the 3rd quarter valued at $729,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Olympic Steel by 62.0% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 98,798 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,429,000 after buying an additional 37,798 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Olympic Steel during the 1st quarter valued at $61,000. Institutional investors own 87.07% of the company’s stock.

Olympic Steel Price Performance

ZEUS stock opened at $36.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 3.77. Olympic Steel has a 52 week low of $34.81 and a 52 week high of $73.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $38.75 and its 200 day moving average is $47.10. The firm has a market cap of $407.25 million, a P/E ratio of 11.77 and a beta of 1.46.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. Olympic Steel had a net margin of 1.74% and a return on equity of 4.98%. The company had revenue of $526.25 million for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.24 EPS.

Olympic Steel Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.29%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday.

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.