Short Interest in Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Drops By 18.6%

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in 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. Approximately 2.4% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 94,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Olympic Steel Stock Down 0.2 %

ZEUS stock opened at $32.80 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $33.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.77. The company has a market cap of $365.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.65 and a beta of 1.48. Olympic Steel has a twelve month low of $30.29 and a twelve month high of $73.27.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last posted its quarterly 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 firm 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%. 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. This is an increase from Olympic Steel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.49%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZEUS has been the subject of a number of 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 report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 25,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $833,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 770 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 22,080 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $724,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 839 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 65,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,137,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the period. 87.07% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.