Financial Comparison: Rectitude (NASDAQ:RECT) vs. Reliance (NYSE:RS)

Reliance (NYSE:RS) and Rectitude (NASDAQ:RECT) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Reliance and Rectitude, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Reliance	1	5	2	1	2.33
Rectitude	1	0	0	0	1.00

Reliance presently has a consensus target price of $378.67, suggesting a potential downside of 11.00%. Given Reliance’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Reliance is more favorable than Rectitude.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Reliance and Rectitude”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Reliance	$14.29 billion	1.52	$739.40 million	$17.20	24.74
Rectitude	$39.74 million	0.49	$2.78 million	N/A	N/A

Reliance has higher revenue and earnings than Rectitude.

Volatility and Risk

Reliance has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rectitude has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Reliance and Rectitude’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Reliance	5.65%	12.51%	8.47%
Rectitude	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

79.3% of Reliance shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Reliance shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Reliance beats Rectitude on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It sells its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, which primarily include small machine shops and fabricators. The company was formerly known as Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. and changed its name to Reliance, Inc. in February 2024. Reliance, Inc. was founded in 1939 and is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

About Rectitude

Rectitude Holdings Ltd is principally involved in the provision of safety equipment, encompassing essential items such as personal protective clothing, gloves, safety footwear, personal fall arrest systems, portable fire extinguishers and traffic products. The Company also offers auxiliary products such as industrial hardware tools and electrical hardware required for construction sites. Rectitude Holdings Ltd is based in SINGAPORE.