Reliance (NYSE:RS) Sets New 1-Year Low – Time to Sell?

Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $263.67 and last traded at $263.90, with a volume of 143876 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $268.47.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $328.83.

Reliance Stock Down 1.3 %

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $303.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $291.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 3.31 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market cap of $14.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.55 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Reliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Reliance’s payout ratio is presently 24.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, SVP William A. Smith II sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.71, for a total value of $2,091,115.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 16,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,420,491.79. This represents a 27.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark V. Kaminski sold 5,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.01, for a total value of $1,490,050.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,856,500 over the last three months. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Reliance

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RS. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in Reliance by 26.7% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,371,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Reliance by 24.2% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 27,916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $8,074,000 after buying an additional 5,431 shares during the period. AXA S.A. raised its stake in Reliance by 5.4% in the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 79,334 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $22,658,000 after buying an additional 4,032 shares in the last quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Reliance by 4.1% during the third quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC now owns 86,406 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $24,989,000 after buying an additional 3,419 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC boosted its position in Reliance by 439.6% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 14,225 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,063,000 after acquiring an additional 11,589 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is 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.