ZEUS

Olympic Steel, Inc. (ZEUS) Business Model Analysis (2026)

Invetso Score: 5.4/10 — Balanced · Last Updated: 2026-08-01

Overall Score

Revenue Quality

Gross margin remains exceptionally high at 99.1%, indicating strong pricing power or a favorable product mix.

Asset turnover of 1.36x and fixed asset turnover of 5.93x suggest efficient use of the asset base to generate sales.

Price-to-sales of 0.36x implies the market is valuing the business conservatively relative to revenue.

Profitability

Operating margin is only 1.8% and net margin is 0.7%, showing thin bottom-line profitability despite strong gross margins.

Return on equity of 1.7% and return on invested capital of 2.1% remain low, indicating limited conversion of sales into economic returns.

Interest coverage of 2.15x and debt service coverage of 2.35x are adequate but not robust.

Balance Sheet

Current ratio of 3.12x and quick ratio of 1.17x indicate solid short-term liquidity.

Debt-to-equity of 0.49x and debt-to-assets of 0.26x show moderate leverage, but net debt to EBITDA of 5.46x is elevated.

Cash ratio of 0.04x is low, so liquidity depends more on receivables and inventory than on cash.

Cash Generation

Free cash flow yield of 6.4% is respectable, but free cash flow conversion remains uneven relative to operating cash flow.

Capex to operating cash flow of 42.0% suggests meaningful reinvestment needs.

Operating cash flow margin of 4.0% is modest, limiting cash generation quality.

Capital Efficiency

Return on capital employed of 3.0% and return on invested capital of 2.1% are weak, implying limited value creation on deployed capital.

Income quality of 6.0x is acceptable, but not strong enough to offset low returns.

Working capital intensity remains high, with a very long cash conversion cycle driven by inventory and payables metrics.

Sources

  • Company filings (10-K, 10-Q, investor presentations)
  • Financial and market data providers
  • Public news and industry information

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