Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE:RS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE:RS – Get Rating) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $191.75.

A number of research firms have weighed in on RS. StockNews.com raised shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 28th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 14th. Exane BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 14th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from $200.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Friday, April 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $226.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 28th.

In related news, VP Stephen Paul Koch sold 24,474 shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum stock in a transaction on Monday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.59, for a total value of $4,517,655.66. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Jeffrey Wayne Durham sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.06, for a total transaction of $1,960,600.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 19,071 shares in the company, valued at $3,739,060.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 135,634 shares of company stock worth $24,280,557. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,370,754 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,168,079,000 after buying an additional 389,942 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,242,803 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $411,223,000 after buying an additional 44,267 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,196,588 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $356,330,000 after buying an additional 364,582 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,155,113 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $306,931,000 after buying an additional 245,179 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Yacktman Asset Management LP raised its stake in Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 19.9% in the 1st quarter. Yacktman Asset Management LP now owns 1,263,336 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $231,633,000 after purchasing an additional 209,836 shares during the last quarter. 81.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

RS stock traded down $0.76 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $186.49. 388,246 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 438,235. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.28 and a current ratio of 3.96. Reliance Steel & Aluminum has a 1-year low of $135.46 and a 1-year high of $211.65. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $190.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $172.02. The company has a market cap of $11.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.12 and a beta of 0.76.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE:RS – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 28th. The industrial products company reported $8.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.20 by $1.22. Reliance Steel & Aluminum had a net margin of 10.61% and a return on equity of 27.94%. The company had revenue of $4.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.10 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 58.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Reliance Steel & Aluminum will post 25.8 earnings per share for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 27th will be given a $0.875 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 26th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.88%. Reliance Steel & Aluminum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.36%.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Company Profile (Get Rating)

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co 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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