Bank of America Cuts Reliance (NYSE:RS) Price Target to $335.00

Reliance (NYSE:RS) had its price target reduced by equities researchers at Bank of America from $340.00 to $335.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 18.81% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup lowered Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $355.50.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:RS traded up $1.93 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $281.96. The company had a trading volume of 114,877 shares, compared to its average volume of 291,513. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $294.53 and its 200 day moving average is $300.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.21 and a current ratio of 5.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.19 billion, a PE ratio of 13.17 and a beta of 0.90. Reliance has a twelve month low of $237.14 and a twelve month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.51 by ($0.21). The business had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 16.26%. Reliance’s revenue was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $6.37 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Reliance will post 18.77 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.04, for a total transaction of $1,450,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 44,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,773,941.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.04, for a total value of $1,450,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 44,042 shares in the company, valued at $12,773,941.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $6,031,954.98. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,230,709.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,421 shares of company stock valued at $11,866,855 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Reliance

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Reliance in the fourth quarter worth about $186,693,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,072,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $358,270,000 after purchasing an additional 184,509 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 29.7% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 286,847 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $80,226,000 after purchasing an additional 65,691 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Reliance by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 885,818 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $247,746,000 after purchasing an additional 64,895 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its holdings in Reliance by 51.2% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 177,771 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $49,719,000 after purchasing an additional 60,229 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Reliance Company Profile

Reliance, Inc operates as a diversified metal solutions provider and the metals service center company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company distributes a line of approximately 100,000 metal products, including alloy, aluminum, brass, copper, carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium, and specialty steel products; and provides metals processing services to general manufacturing, non-residential construction, transportation, aerospace, energy, electronics and semiconductor fabrication, and heavy industries.