Nucor (NUE) Competitors

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) and Nucor (NYSE:NUE) are both basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and media sentiment.

Is ZEUS or NUE more profitable?

Nucor has a net margin of 4.21% compared to Olympic Steel's net margin of 0.77%. Nucor's return on equity of 6.65% beat Olympic Steel's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Olympic Steel	0.77%	1.95%	1.07%
Nucor	4.21%	6.65%	4.15%

Do analysts prefer ZEUS or NUE?

Olympic Steel presently has a consensus price target of $38.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.57%. Nucor has a consensus price target of $155.78, suggesting a potential upside of 4.55%. Given Olympic Steel's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Olympic Steel is more favorable than Nucor.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Olympic Steel	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Nucor	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.88

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of ZEUS or NUE?

87.1% of Olympic Steel shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Nucor shares are held by institutional investors. 13.8% of Olympic Steel shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Nucor shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk & volatility, ZEUS or NUE?

Olympic Steel has a beta of 1.72, meaning that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nucor has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, ZEUS or NUE?

Nucor has higher revenue and earnings than Olympic Steel. Nucor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Olympic Steel, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Olympic Steel	$1.94B	0.19	$22.98M	$1.22	27.43
Nucor	$30.73B	1.11	$2.03B	$5.54	26.89

Does the media favor ZEUS or NUE?

In the previous week, Nucor had 25 more articles in the media than Olympic Steel. MarketBeat recorded 30 mentions for Nucor and 5 mentions for Olympic Steel. Olympic Steel's average media sentiment score of 1.71 beat Nucor's score of 1.17 indicating that Olympic Steel is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Olympic Steel	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
Nucor	26 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is ZEUS or NUE a better dividend stock?

Olympic Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Nucor pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Olympic Steel pays out 52.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nucor pays out 39.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Olympic Steel has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and Nucor has raised its dividend for 52 consecutive years.

Summary

Nucor beats Olympic Steel on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.