Olympic Steel, Inc. $ZEUS Stock Holdings Trimmed by Martingale Asset Management L P

Key Points

• Martingale Asset Management L P reduced its stake in Olympic Steel, Inc. by 56.7%, selling 9,178 shares in the first quarter and now owning 7,017 shares valued at $221,000.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed opinions on Olympic Steel, with KeyCorp lowering its price target from $40 to $38 and one analyst downgrading the stock from "buy" to "hold."
• Olympic Steel recently reported lower-than-expected earnings, with a quarterly EPS of $0.50 compared to estimated $0.59, while announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.16.

Martingale Asset Management L P lowered its stake in Olympic Steel, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZEUS - Free Report) by 56.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,017 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 9,178 shares during the period. Martingale Asset Management L P owned 0.06% of Olympic Steel worth $221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ZEUS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Olympic Steel by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 610,747 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $19,251,000 after purchasing an additional 2,503 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 349,157 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $11,005,000 after acquiring an additional 19,044 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Olympic Steel by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 185,808 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $6,096,000 after acquiring an additional 2,934 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Olympic Steel in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $5,637,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Olympic Steel by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 173,490 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,692,000 after acquiring an additional 9,316 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.07% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Olympic Steel from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, August 10th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Olympic Steel from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $38.00.

Olympic Steel Stock Performance

ZEUS stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $33.71. The company had a trading volume of 59,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 55,602. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 3.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $377.55 million, a P/E ratio of 27.63 and a beta of 1.77. Olympic Steel, Inc. has a one year low of $26.32 and a one year high of $43.60. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $32.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.18.

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $496.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $506.60 million. Olympic Steel had a return on equity of 1.95% and a net margin of 0.77%. Research analysts anticipate that Olympic Steel, Inc. will post 2.69 EPS for the current year.

Olympic Steel Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Olympic Steel's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.46%.

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.