Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Short Interest Down 18.6% in February

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on ZEUS. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of 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 shares of Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 705 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 770 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $724,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,891 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $456,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 65,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,137,000 after buying an additional 919 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.07% of the company’s stock.

Olympic Steel Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of ZEUS stock opened at $33.12 on Thursday. Olympic Steel has a 1-year low of $30.29 and a 1-year high of $73.27. The company has a current ratio of 3.52, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $368.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.81 and a beta of 1.48. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $33.97 and a 200-day moving average of $36.69.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $418.78 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $441.60 million. Olympic Steel had a net margin of 1.18% and a return on equity of 3.31%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Olympic Steel will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This is a positive change from Olympic Steel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.49%.

About Olympic Steel

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.