Reliance (NYSE:RS) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

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

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a buy rating to a neutral rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $362.33.

Reliance Stock Down 0.6 %

RS opened at $290.42 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $324.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $291.41. The company has a current ratio of 5.74, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market capitalization of $16.68 billion, a PE ratio of 13.56, a PEG ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance has a 1-year low of $229.12 and a 1-year high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 16.26% and a net margin of 8.67%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $6.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Reliance will post 19.51 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 24th will be paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. Reliance’s payout ratio is 20.55%.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,091,176.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the completion of 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Reliance

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 378.5% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,919 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,655,000 after buying an additional 4,682 shares in the last quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. now owns 26,668 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,993,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 47,759 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $13,357,000 after acquiring an additional 12,423 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 210,218 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $55,125,000 after acquiring an additional 28,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter worth about $8,173,000. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.