Reliance (NYSE:RS) Stock Rating Lowered by Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Reliance (NYSE:RS) from a peer perform rating to an underperform rating in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat reports. Wolfe Research currently has $262.00 price objective on the industrial products company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. StockNews.com downgraded Reliance from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Reliance from $340.00 to $335.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Citigroup downgraded Reliance from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price target for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price target on Reliance from $341.00 to $325.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $329.40.

Reliance Stock Down 1.3 %

NYSE:RS opened at $304.05 on Friday. Reliance has a 12-month low of $237.14 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.43, a current ratio of 5.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.20 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $291.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $302.79.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The industrial products company reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.73 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 14.73% and a net margin of 7.99%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $6.49 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Reliance will post 18.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 20.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $6,031,954.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 7,552 shares in the company, valued at $2,230,709.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $6,031,954.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,552 shares in the company, valued at $2,230,709.76. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.36, for a total transaction of $1,471,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 34,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,020,603.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 40,421 shares of company stock worth $11,866,855. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,224,274 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $342,405,000 after acquiring an additional 27,074 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 20.8% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,072,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $358,270,000 after acquiring an additional 184,509 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 885,818 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $247,746,000 after acquiring an additional 64,895 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 4th quarter valued at about $186,693,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Reliance by 21.5% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 348,534 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $116,473,000 after purchasing an additional 61,687 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.