Bank of America Cuts Reliance (NYSE:RS) Price Target to $335.00

Reliance (NYSE:RS) had its target price cut by equities research analysts at Bank of America from $340.00 to $335.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Bank of America‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 18.81% from the company’s previous close.

RS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Citigroup lowered Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. Three 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 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $355.50.

Reliance Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE RS traded up $1.93 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $281.96. 114,877 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 291,513. The company has a market cap of $16.19 billion, a PE ratio of 13.17 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 5.74 and a quick ratio of 3.21. Reliance has a 52 week low of $237.14 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $294.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $300.29.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.51 by ($0.21). Reliance had a return on equity of 16.26% and a net margin of 8.67%. The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $6.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Reliance will post 18.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other news, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The stock was 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.04, for a total transaction of $1,450,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 44,042 shares in the company, valued at $12,773,941.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $6,031,954.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 7,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,230,709.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,421 shares of company stock worth $11,866,855 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Reliance

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. now owns 778 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its stake in Reliance by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 480 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Rational Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Reliance by 33.6% in the 1st quarter. Rational Advisors LLC now owns 159 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,023 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 16,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,501,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently 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.