The Goldman Sachs Group Initiates Coverage on Reliance (NYSE:RS)

Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Reliance (NYSE:RS) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the industrial products company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 7.42% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on RS. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $328.83.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS opened at $317.45 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. Reliance has a twelve month low of $261.77 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.43 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $300.19 and a 200-day moving average of $291.92.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.66 by ($0.02). Reliance had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.68%. The business had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.00 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Reliance will post 16.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total transaction of $1,260,618.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,569,396.30. This trade represents a 4.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark V. Kaminski sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.01, for a total value of $1,490,050.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,856,500 over the last ninety days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Reliance

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of RS. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in Reliance in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Reliance in the third quarter valued at about $41,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Reliance by 27.0% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 249 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Reliance during the third quarter worth about $78,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in Reliance by 17.9% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 270 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $76,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. 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.