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

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 287,400 shares, an increase of 24.0% from the February 28th total of 231,700 shares. Currently, 3.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 95,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Institutional Trading of Olympic Steel

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ZEUS. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Olympic Steel in the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $184,000. HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Olympic Steel in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $202,000. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Olympic Steel during the 4th quarter worth approximately $216,000. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Olympic Steel by 11.4% during the 4th 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZEUS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Olympic Steel from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st.

Olympic Steel Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ZEUS opened at $31.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 3.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $349.67 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.94 and a beta of 1.48. Olympic Steel has a 1-year low of $30.29 and a 1-year high of $73.27. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.35.

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

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.16 dividend. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.