Reliance (NYSE:RS) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on RS. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup lowered Reliance from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $362.33.

Reliance Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE RS traded down $1.71 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $290.42. The stock had a trading volume of 488,495 shares, compared to its average volume of 248,402. The company has a market capitalization of $16.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.84, a PEG ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance has a 1-year low of $229.12 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $324.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $291.41.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.51 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.37 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Reliance will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total value of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,963,809.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878 in the last three months. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Reliance

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $186,693,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Reliance by 35.4% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 723,755 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $189,790,000 after buying an additional 189,326 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in Reliance by 68.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 193,347 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $50,699,000 after buying an additional 78,699 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 29.7% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 286,847 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $80,226,000 after buying an additional 65,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Reliance by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 885,818 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $247,746,000 after buying an additional 64,895 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by 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.

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