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

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 269,900 shares, a drop of 25.7% from the July 31st total of 363,400 shares. Currently, 2.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 94,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ZEUS. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in Olympic Steel in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $58,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Olympic Steel in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $61,000. AJOVista LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel during the 4th quarter worth $75,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel during the 2nd quarter worth $201,000. Finally, Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel during the 1st quarter worth $207,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Olympic Steel Stock Down 0.9 %

Olympic Steel stock opened at $39.99 on Thursday. Olympic Steel has a fifty-two week low of $39.08 and a fifty-two week high of $73.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 3.77. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $44.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.69. The company has a market capitalization of $445.21 million, a PE ratio of 10.66 and a beta of 1.52.

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. 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 prior year, the business earned $1.24 EPS.

Olympic Steel Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.00%.

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.