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

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) was the target of a large increase in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 463,700 shares, an increase of 71.8% from the August 15th total of 269,900 shares. Currently, 4.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 109,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Olympic Steel by 21.6% during 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 last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Olympic Steel by 6.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,628 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC acquired a new position in Olympic Steel in the 4th quarter worth about $395,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Olympic Steel in the fourth quarter valued at about $468,000. 87.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Olympic Steel Stock Performance

Shares of ZEUS stock opened at $38.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $429.62 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.29 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 3.77. Olympic Steel has a 52 week low of $34.81 and a 52 week high of $73.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.17.

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

Olympic Steel Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

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.