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 research note released on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about 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. 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $328.83.

Reliance Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE RS opened at $267.27 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.31, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $296.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.21. The stock has a market cap of $14.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.68 and a beta of 0.91. Reliance has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20.

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

Reliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 24.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,569,396.30. This trade represents a 4.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP William A. Smith II sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.71, for a total value of $2,091,115.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 16,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,420,491.79. This trade represents a 27.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,856,500 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the third quarter worth $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Reliance by 157.8% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Reliance by 27.0% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 249 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in shares of Reliance by 17.9% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 270 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at about $78,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.