Reliance (NYSE:RS) Hits New 12-Month Low – Time to Sell?

Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $255.40 and last traded at $262.74, with a volume of 995 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $264.78.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $13.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.87 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $288.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $290.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. On average, analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Reliance

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 4,558 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,318,000 after acquiring an additional 1,469 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,824,000. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 12.7% in the third quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 6,258 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,904,000 after purchasing an additional 703 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the third quarter valued at approximately $336,000. 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.