BMO Capital Markets Lowers Reliance (NYSE:RS) Price Target to $345.00

Reliance (NYSE:RS) had its price target trimmed by BMO Capital Markets from $355.00 to $345.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on RS. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a buy rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:RS opened at $293.93 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $324.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $291.99. 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 market cap of $16.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.73, a PEG ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance has a 12 month low of $229.12 and a 12 month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.51 by ($0.21). Reliance had a return on equity of 16.26% and a net margin of 8.67%. The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $6.37 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Reliance will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. Reliance’s payout ratio is presently 20.55%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of Reliance 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,963,809.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Reliance

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Reliance by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,224,274 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $342,405,000 after purchasing an additional 27,074 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of 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 period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Reliance by 35.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 723,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,790,000 after buying an additional 189,326 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Reliance by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 675,801 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $177,215,000 after acquiring an additional 37,971 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Reliance during the 4th quarter worth $186,693,000. 79.26% of the stock is 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.