Reliance (NYSE:RS) Rating Increased to Peer Perform at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance (NYSE:RS) from an underperform rating to a peer perform rating in a report published on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target for the company. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $328.83.

Reliance Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE RS opened at $267.72 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Reliance has a twelve month low of $256.98 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.49 billion, a PE ratio of 14.70 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $296.11 and its 200 day moving average is $290.05.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.66 by ($0.02). Reliance had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.68%. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.00 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Reliance will post 16.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $1.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Reliance’s payout ratio is 24.16%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 6,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.18, for a total transaction of $2,014,715.76. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 9,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,941,574.10. This trade represents a 40.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total value of $1,260,618.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at $27,569,396.30. This trade represents a 4.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,724 shares of company stock worth $6,856,500. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Reliance

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in Reliance by 78.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 289,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $82,816,000 after acquiring an additional 127,422 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Reliance by 27,269.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 112,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $32,453,000 after acquiring an additional 111,803 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Reliance by 19.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 472,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $136,718,000 after acquiring an additional 77,937 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Reliance by 68.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 139,660 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $40,391,000 after acquiring an additional 56,933 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Reliance by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,168,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $333,809,000 after acquiring an additional 53,747 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

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.