Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Short Interest Up 124.9% in October

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 368,000 shares, a growth of 124.9% from the September 30th total of 163,600 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 180,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday.

Olympic Steel Trading Down 0.6 %

ZEUS opened at $36.59 on Monday. 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 one year low of $34.81 and a one year high of $73.49. The company has a market cap of $407.36 million, a P/E ratio of 9.76 and a beta of 1.46. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.77.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last announced 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 company had revenue of $526.25 million for the quarter. Olympic Steel had a net margin of 1.74% and a return on equity of 4.98%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.24 earnings per share.

Olympic Steel Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Investors of record on Monday, September 2nd were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Large investors 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. boosted its holdings in shares of Olympic Steel by 1.8% in the first 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. Unison Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Olympic Steel in the 3rd quarter valued at $729,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Olympic Steel by 62.0% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 98,798 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,429,000 after purchasing an additional 37,798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Olympic Steel during the 1st quarter worth $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.07% of the company’s stock.

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.