Head-To-Head Contrast: Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) & Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS)

Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) and Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) are both small-cap materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

Olympic Steel has a beta of 1.75, indicating that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Worthington Steel has a beta of 2.12, indicating that its stock price is 112% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Olympic Steel and Worthington Steel’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%
Worthington Steel	-0.56%	7.49%	3.14%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Olympic Steel and Worthington Steel, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Olympic Steel	0	1	0	0	2.00
Worthington Steel	1	1	1	0	2.00

Worthington Steel has a consensus price target of $46.00, suggesting a potential upside of 25.14%. Given Worthington Steel’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Worthington Steel is more favorable than Olympic Steel.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Olympic Steel and Worthington Steel”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
Worthington Steel	$3.44 billion	0.55	$8.50 million	($0.61)	-60.26

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.1% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.4% of Worthington Steel shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.8% of Olympic Steel shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Worthington Steel shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments 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%. Worthington Steel pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Olympic Steel pays out 54.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Worthington Steel pays out -104.9% 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 increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Worthington Steel is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Worthington Steel beats Olympic Steel on 9 of the 16 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 Worthington Steel

Worthington Steel, Inc. operates as a steel processor in North America. It offers carbon flat-rolled steel and tailor welded blanks, as well as electrical steel laminations; and aluminum tailor welded blanks. The company serves various end-markets, including automotive, heavy truck, agriculture, construction, and energy. Worthington Steel, Inc. was incorporated in 2023 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.