Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $329.17.

RS has been the topic of several research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Reliance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RS. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in Reliance by 0.3% during the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 19,578 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,662,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Reliance by 19.7% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 472,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $136,718,000 after purchasing an additional 77,937 shares in the last quarter. Olympiad Research LP bought a new stake in Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $285,000. SpiderRock Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Reliance in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $707,000. Finally, Applied Finance Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Reliance by 613.5% in the 3rd quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC now owns 11,167 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,230,000 after purchasing an additional 9,602 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Reliance Stock Up 1.5 %

RS stock opened at $283.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Reliance has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $286.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $289.85.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Reliance will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

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.