Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Friday.

Separately, KeyCorp raised Olympic Steel from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd.

Olympic Steel Stock Performance

Shares of ZEUS stock opened at $37.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $421.72 million, a P/E ratio of 19.23 and a beta of 1.52. Olympic Steel has a fifty-two week low of $30.29 and a fifty-two week high of $73.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 3.52. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.65.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $418.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $441.60 million. Olympic Steel had a net margin of 1.18% and a return on equity of 3.31%. Analysts expect that Olympic Steel will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This is an increase from Olympic Steel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Olympic Steel’s payout ratio is presently 30.46%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Olympic Steel during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in Olympic Steel during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $184,000. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Olympic Steel during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $202,000. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Olympic Steel during the 4th quarter worth approximately $216,000. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 28.6% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 6,747 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $263,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. 87.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.