Aperam (OTCMKTS:APEMY) vs. Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) Head to Head Analysis

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) and Aperam (OTCMKTS:APEMY) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Olympic Steel and Aperam, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Olympic Steel	0	1	1	0	2.50
Aperam	0	5	2	0	2.29

Olympic Steel currently has a consensus price target of $38.00, indicating a potential downside of 20.60%. Given Olympic Steel’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Olympic Steel is more favorable than Aperam.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Olympic Steel and Aperam”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Olympic Steel	$1.90 billion	0.28	$22.98 million	$1.17	40.91
Aperam	$6.88 billion	0.55	$11.31 million	$0.16	324.42

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

Profitability

This table compares Olympic Steel and Aperam’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Olympic Steel	0.73%	2.11%	1.14%
Aperam	0.17%	1.05%	0.58%

Volatility & Risk

Olympic Steel has a beta of 1.75, indicating that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aperam has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.1% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.8% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Aperam shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Olympic Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Aperam pays an annual dividend of $1.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Olympic Steel pays out 54.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aperam pays out 1,237.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Olympic Steel has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Summary

Olympic Steel beats Aperam on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The company also provides cutting-to-length, slitting, shearing, blanking, tempering, stretcher-leveling, plate and laser processing, forming and machining, tube processing, finishing, and fabrication services, as well as value-added services, such as saw cutting, laser cutting, beveling, threading, and grooving services. It serves metal consuming industries, such as manufacturers and fabricators of transportation and material handling lift equipment, construction, mining and farm equipment, agriculture equipment, storage tanks, environmental and energy generation equipment, automobiles, food service, and electrical equipment, as well as general and plate fabricators, and metals service centers through direct sales force. Olympic Steel, Inc. was founded in 1954 and is based in Highland Hills, Ohio.

About Aperam

Aperam S.A., together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells stainless and specialty steel products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Stainless & Electrical Steel; Services & Solutions; Alloys & Specialties; and Recycling & Renewables. The company offers a range of stainless steel products, including grain oriented and non-grain oriented electrical steel products, and specialty alloys. It is also involved in the management of direct sales of stainless steel products from production facilities; distribution of its products; and the provision of transformation services that include value added and customized steel solutions. In addition, the company designs, produces, and transforms various specialty alloys and other specific stainless steels in forms, such as bars, semis, cold-rolled strips, wire and wire rods, and plates in a range on grades. Further, it engages in the trading, processing, and recycling of raw materials, such as superalloys and titanium; provides Recyco, an electric arc furnace recycling facility that retrieves dust and sludge to recycle stainless steel raw materials and reduce waste; and produces wood and charcoal from cultivated eucalyptus forests. The company serves customers in aerospace, automotive, catering, construction, household appliances, electrical engineering, industrial processes, medical, and oil and gas industries. It distributes its products through a network of steel service centers, transformation facilities, and sales offices. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.