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

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of 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. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 94,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Olympic Steel Stock Down 1.7 %

ZEUS opened at $32.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $359.02 million, a P/E ratio of 16.37 and a beta of 1.48. Olympic Steel has a 12 month low of $30.29 and a 12 month high of $73.27.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $418.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $441.60 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Olympic Steel will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in Olympic Steel by 2.9% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 705 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in Olympic Steel by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 7,517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 770 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Olympic Steel by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 22,080 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $724,000 after buying an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Olympic Steel by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,891 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $456,000 after buying an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Olympic Steel by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 65,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,137,000 after buying an additional 919 shares in the last quarter. 87.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ZEUS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective 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.

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.