Reliance (NYSE:RS) Upgraded at Barclays

Key Points

• Barclays upgraded Reliance to “overweight” from “equal weight” and raised its price target to $507 from $445, implying 17.82% potential upside from the current price.
• Analyst views remain mixed: Reliance has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $415.50.
• Reliance beat quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $8.02 versus $6.83 estimated and revenue of $5.21 billion, up 42.8% year over year.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Barclays from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report issued on Thursday, FinViz reports. The firm currently has a $507.00 price target on the industrial products company's stock, up from their previous price target of $445.00. Barclays's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 17.82% from the stock's current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on RS. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Reliance from $390.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Reliance from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings cut Reliance from a "buy (b)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Reliance from $421.00 to $437.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 26th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Reliance from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $415.50.

Reliance Stock Up 0.7%

NYSE RS opened at $430.31 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $407.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $372.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a current ratio of 4.12. The company has a market cap of $21.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.95. Reliance has a one year low of $263.12 and a one year high of $454.93.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The industrial products company reported $8.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $6.83 by $1.19. The business had revenue of $5.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.74 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 15.31%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 42.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.64 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Reliance will post 26.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In related news, COO Stephen Koch sold 8,334 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $430.87, for a total transaction of $3,590,870.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 8,209 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,537,011.83. The trade was a 50.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Reliance

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. XXEC Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the second quarter worth about $127,493,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Reliance during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,171,081,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Reliance during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $176,913,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $142,900,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $135,760,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company's stock.

Reliance Company Profile

Reliance, Inc. is a metal service center company that distributes metals and provides processing services to customers across a range of industries. Its products include carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, alloy steel, brass, copper and other metals. The company processes materials to customer specifications through services such as cutting, sawing, slitting, machining, forming and laser, plasma or waterjet cutting. These services help customers prepare metal for use in manufacturing, construction, transportation, energy and other applications.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.