Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Short Interest Down 18.6% in February

Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS - Get Free Report) was the target of a large drop in short interest in 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. Based on an average daily volume of 94,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days. Approximately 2.4% of the company's stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Olympic Steel

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 25,374 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $833,000 after purchasing an additional 705 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Olympic Steel by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 7,517 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $247,000 after purchasing an additional 770 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Olympic Steel by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 22,080 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $724,000 after buying an additional 780 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Olympic Steel by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,891 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $456,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 65,127 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,137,000 after acquiring an additional 919 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.07% of the company's stock.

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Olympic Steel Stock Down 4.2 %

Olympic Steel stock traded down $1.39 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $31.84. The stock had a trading volume of 230,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 111,632. Olympic Steel has a 52 week low of $30.29 and a 52 week high of $73.27. The company has a market cap of $354.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.16 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.52 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The business's 50 day moving average price is $34.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.67.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS - Get Free Report) last posted its 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. Olympic Steel had a net margin of 1.18% and a return on equity of 3.31%. The company had revenue of $418.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $441.60 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Olympic Steel will post 2.69 EPS for the current year.

Olympic Steel Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. This is an increase from Olympic Steel's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Olympic Steel's payout ratio is 32.49%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ZEUS. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Olympic Steel from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com cut Olympic Steel from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st.

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.