Reliance (NYSE:RS) Earns Neutral Rating from Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance (NYSE:RS) in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $341.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock.

RS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $328.83.

Reliance Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:RS opened at $310.82 on Monday. Reliance has a 52 week low of $261.77 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.31. The company has a market capitalization of $16.82 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $300.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $292.05.

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

Reliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

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

Institutional Trading of Reliance

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Reliance in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Reliance in the 3rd quarter worth about $41,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in Reliance by 27.0% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 249 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Reliance by 17.9% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 270 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Reliance in the 3rd quarter worth about $78,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

About Reliance

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.