Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $329.17.

RS has been the subject of several research reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective on the stock.

Reliance Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of RS stock opened at $283.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $286.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $289.85.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Reliance will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Reliance

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of RS. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 224.6% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 185 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC purchased a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter worth about $58,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth 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.