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

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 163,600 shares, a decrease of 72.6% from the September 15th total of 598,100 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 177,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 21.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 25,201 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Olympic Steel by 1.8% in 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. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 62.0% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 98,798 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,429,000 after acquiring an additional 37,798 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Olympic Steel during the first quarter worth $61,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 5.2% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 76,498 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,422,000 after buying an additional 3,756 shares in the last quarter. 87.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Olympic Steel from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th.

Olympic Steel Trading Up 1.0 %

ZEUS opened at $39.52 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 3.77 and a quick ratio of 1.43. Olympic Steel has a 12 month low of $34.81 and a 12 month high of $73.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $439.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.71 and a beta of 1.46.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.60 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $526.25 million for the quarter. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.24 EPS.

Olympic Steel Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.29%.

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.