Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $329.17.

RS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Quent Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,002,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 1,342 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 1,619 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $436,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lido Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Reliance by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 998 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $269,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Down 1.3 %

Reliance stock opened at $277.82 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.99 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $286.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.01. Reliance has a twelve month low of $256.98 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Reliance will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

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.