Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE:RS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE:RS – Get Rating) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nine brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $222.40.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $218.00 to $201.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 6th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum in a research report on Wednesday, January 4th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE:RS opened at $210.69 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $206.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $193.15. Reliance Steel & Aluminum has a 12 month low of $145.79 and a 12 month high of $218.74. The company has a current ratio of 3.25, a quick ratio of 1.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock has a market cap of $12.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.89 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYSE:RS – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 27th. The industrial products company reported $6.48 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.20 by $0.28. Reliance Steel & Aluminum had a net margin of 10.98% and a return on equity of 29.31%. The firm had revenue of $4.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $6.15 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Reliance Steel & Aluminum will post 28.65 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 18th were paid a dividend of $0.875 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 17th. This represents a $3.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Reliance Steel & Aluminum’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance Steel & Aluminum

In other Reliance Steel & Aluminum news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $211.45, for a total transaction of $2,114,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,680 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,161,336. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, President Karla R. Lewis sold 9,178 shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $213.69, for a total value of $1,961,246.82. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 77,832 shares in the company, valued at $16,631,920.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 10,000 shares of Reliance Steel & Aluminum stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $211.45, for a total transaction of $2,114,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,161,336. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 25,747 shares of company stock worth $5,479,608. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Reliance Steel & Aluminum

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its position in Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 212.0% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 6,876 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,261,000 after buying an additional 4,672 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 0.8% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 11,264 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,065,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. bought a new stake in Reliance Steel & Aluminum during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,533,000. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its position in Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 8.2% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 40,567 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,679,000 after buying an additional 3,058 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Reliance Steel & Aluminum by 14.6% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 35,984 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,602,000 after buying an additional 4,573 shares during the period. 81.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Reliance Steel & Aluminum

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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.