Short Interest in Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Drops By 18.6%

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 231,700 shares, a drop of 18.6% from the February 13th total of 284,700 shares. Currently, 2.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 94,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Olympic Steel in the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel during the third quarter worth about $184,000. HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel during the third quarter worth about $202,000. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel during the fourth quarter worth about $216,000. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 7,517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 770 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.07% of the company’s stock.

Olympic Steel Price Performance

Olympic Steel stock opened at $32.80 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.77. The stock has a market cap of $365.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.65 and a beta of 1.48. Olympic Steel has a 12-month low of $30.29 and a 12-month high of $73.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 3.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

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

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.16 dividend. This is a positive change from Olympic Steel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.49%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ZEUS has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut Olympic Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. KeyCorp raised their price target on Olympic Steel from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th.

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.