Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Short Interest Down 25.1% in March

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 328,600 shares, a drop of 25.1% from the March 15th total of 438,700 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 82,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days. Approximately 3.4% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Olympic Steel Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Olympic Steel stock opened at $68.25 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $759.62 million, a PE ratio of 17.73 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a current ratio of 3.35, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $68.15 and its 200 day moving average is $61.42. Olympic Steel has a 1 year low of $40.85 and a 1 year high of $73.49.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.12. Olympic Steel had a net margin of 2.06% and a return on equity of 7.30%. The firm had revenue of $489.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $490.10 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Olympic Steel will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This is a positive change from Olympic Steel’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. Olympic Steel’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.58%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Olympic Steel from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 2nd.

Institutional Trading of Olympic Steel

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ZEUS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 669,270 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $44,640,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Olympic Steel by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 27,615 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,842,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 50.2% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 16,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,091,000 after acquiring an additional 5,465 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 81.6% during the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 7,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $497,000 after acquiring an additional 3,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 169,194 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,285,000 after acquiring an additional 19,688 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.