Aya Gold & Silver (NASDAQ:AYA) and Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Financial Analysis

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) and Aya Gold & Silver (NASDAQ:AYA) are both materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Olympic Steel and Aya Gold & Silver”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Olympic Steel	$1.90 billion	0.28	$22.98 million	$1.17	40.91
Aya Gold & Silver	$202.10 million	19.38	$45.56 million	$0.56	48.54

Aya Gold & Silver has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Olympic Steel. Olympic Steel is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aya Gold & Silver, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Olympic Steel and Aya Gold & Silver, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Olympic Steel	0	1	0	0	2.00
Aya Gold & Silver	0	1	1	2	3.25

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.1% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.8% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Olympic Steel and Aya Gold & Silver’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Olympic Steel	0.73%	2.11%	1.14%
Aya Gold & Silver	32.92%	25.49%	17.70%

Summary

Aya Gold & Silver beats Olympic Steel on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company also provides cutting-to-length, slitting, shearing, blanking, tempering, stretcher-leveling, plate and laser processing, forming and machining, tube processing, finishing, and fabrication services, as well as value-added services, such as saw cutting, laser cutting, beveling, threading, and grooving services. It serves metal consuming industries, such as manufacturers and fabricators of transportation and material handling lift equipment, construction, mining and farm equipment, agriculture equipment, storage tanks, environmental and energy generation equipment, automobiles, food service, and electrical equipment, as well as general and plate fabricators, and metals service centers through direct sales force. Olympic Steel, Inc. was founded in 1954 and is based in Highland Hills, Ohio.

About Aya Gold & Silver

Aya Gold & Silver Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration, evaluation and development of precious metals projects principally in Morocco. The company primarily explores for gold and silver deposits. Its flagship project holds Zgounder property. Aya Gold & Silver Inc. is based in Mount Royal, Canada.