Reliance (NYSE:RS) Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Reliance (NYSE:RS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Friday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on RS. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Reliance from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their target price for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th.

Reliance Price Performance

RS stock opened at $290.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 5.74. Reliance has a 52 week low of $229.12 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $324.16 and its 200 day moving average is $291.99. The firm has a market cap of $16.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.57, a P/E/G ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.51 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 16.26% and a net margin of 8.67%. Reliance’s revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $6.37 EPS. Research analysts predict that Reliance will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be given a $1.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 20.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,091,176.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Reliance

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at about $186,693,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 35.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 723,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,790,000 after purchasing an additional 189,326 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 68.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 193,347 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,699,000 after purchasing an additional 78,699 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised 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 valued at $80,226,000 after purchasing an additional 65,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 885,818 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $247,746,000 after purchasing an additional 64,895 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.