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

Reliance (NYSE:RS) had its price objective lowered by Bank of America from $340.00 to $335.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Citigroup cut Reliance from a buy rating to a neutral rating and increased their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Reliance from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $355.50.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS opened at $285.60 on Wednesday. Reliance has a 12 month low of $237.14 and a 12 month high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 5.74 and a quick ratio of 3.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $292.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $300.38. The company has a market cap of $16.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.34 and a beta of 0.90.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.51 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 16.26% and a net margin of 8.67%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $6.37 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Reliance will post 18.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.55%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.04, for a total value of $1,450,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 44,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,773,941.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,230,709.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.04, for a total value of $1,450,200.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 44,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,773,941.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,421 shares of company stock worth $11,866,855 over the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Reliance

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of RS. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance in the first quarter worth $25,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Reliance during the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Reliance during the 1st quarter worth about $49,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Reliance during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Rational Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

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.