Reliance (NYSE:RS) Downgraded 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 morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $262.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on RS. StockNews.com lowered shares of Reliance from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. BMO Capital Markets cut 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. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $335.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Reliance from $341.00 to $325.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Reliance from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $329.40.

Reliance Stock Performance

Reliance stock opened at $303.00 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $291.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $302.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 2.43 and a current ratio of 5.02. Reliance has a fifty-two week low of $237.14 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The company has a market capitalization of $17.40 billion, a PE ratio of 14.15 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The industrial products company reported $4.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.73 by ($0.08). Reliance had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 14.73%. The company had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $6.49 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Reliance will post 18.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,230,709.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,230,709.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 44,042 shares in the company, valued at $12,773,941.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 35,421 shares of company stock valued at $10,417,805. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in Reliance during the first quarter valued at $25,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in Reliance during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Reliance during the first quarter valued at $30,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Reliance during the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Reliance during the first quarter valued at $49,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.