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

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance (NYSE:RS) from an underperform rating to a peer perform rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Reliance has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $328.83.

Reliance Stock Down 1.1 %

Reliance stock opened at $267.27 on Wednesday. Reliance has a fifty-two week low of $256.98 and a fifty-two 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 firm has a 50 day moving average price of $296.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.21. The company has a market capitalization of $14.46 billion, a PE ratio of 14.68 and a beta of 0.91.

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

Reliance Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In related news, Director Mark V. Kaminski sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.01, for a total value of $1,490,050.00. The sale 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 that occurred 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 owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at $27,569,396.30. This trade represents a 4.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,856,500 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Reliance

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Reliance by 4.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,168,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $333,809,000 after acquiring an additional 53,747 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Reliance by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 472,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $136,718,000 after buying an additional 77,937 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its position in Reliance by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $85,616,000 after buying an additional 20,056 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in shares of Reliance by 78.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 289,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $82,816,000 after purchasing an additional 127,422 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 285,871 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $82,677,000 after purchasing an additional 1,499 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.