Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Downgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday.

Olympic Steel Price Performance

Shares of ZEUS opened at $37.31 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 3.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Olympic Steel has a twelve month low of $36.79 and a twelve month high of $73.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $415.26 million, a P/E ratio of 9.95 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a 50 day moving average of $43.57 and a 200-day moving average of $54.64.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $526.25 million during the quarter. Olympic Steel had a return on equity of 4.98% and a net margin of 1.74%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.24 earnings per share.

Olympic Steel Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.61%. Olympic Steel’s payout ratio is 16.00%.

Institutional Trading of Olympic Steel

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 acquiring an additional 12,242 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Olympic Steel by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 13,294 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $887,000 after buying an additional 3,476 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in Olympic Steel by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 28,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,903,000 after buying an additional 1,628 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC acquired a new position in Olympic Steel in the 4th quarter valued at about $395,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Olympic Steel in the 4th quarter valued at about $468,000. 87.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.