Olympic Steel: Looking to medal in '08

The extreme volatility that the market has recently experienced has many investors seeking out plays that can add stability to their portfolios. Enter steel service center company Olympic Steel Inc. (Nasdaq:ZEUS), a dish literally fit for the gods.

The company was incorporated in Cleveland, Ohio in 1954 with an initial focus on producing hot- and cold-rolled sheet steel. Olympic went public in 1994 and in 1997 entered into a joint venture with United States Steel Corp. (NYSE:X) to produce laser sheet steel banks for the automotive industry. Today the company has its focus on the direct sale and distribution of large volumes of processed carbon, coated and stainless flat-rolled sheet, coil and plate steel products. 

With a market cap of $461 million, Olympic acts as an intermediary between steel producers and manufacturing companies that utilize processed steel in their operations. It has 15 processing and distribution facilities located in the midwestern and eastern United States.

Over the course of the company’s history, Olympic has been able to grow its business both organically and through acquisitions. The company has a seasoned management team that includes a CEO and COO who each have more than 20 years of service with the company. Taken together, these factors have led Olympic’s stock price to heat up over the past year to close at $42.50 on Thursday.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, Olympic reported net income of $4.5 million, or $0.42 per diluted share. Net sales came in at $236.1 million. These figures represented respective increases of 20% and 4.4% over the year ago quarter. For 2008, analyst estimates are . . .

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