Reliance (NYSE:RS) Stock Rating Cut to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Reliance (NYSE:RS) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report released on Sunday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on RS. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Reliance in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Reliance from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Reliance from $390.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Reliance from $390.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Reliance from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $382.00.

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE RS opened at $402.45 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $399.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $378.49. Reliance has a twelve month low of $260.31 and a twelve month high of $433.02. The company has a market capitalization of $20.55 billion, a PE ratio of 23.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 4.30, a quick ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The industrial products company reported $6.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.47 by $0.80. The firm had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.26 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 5.65%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 26.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.43 EPS. Reliance has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 6.400-6.600 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Reliance will post 23.70 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th were given a dividend of $1.25 per share. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. Reliance’s payout ratio is 29.07%.

Insider Activity

In other Reliance news, SVP William Smith, II sold 2,353 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $414.21, for a total transaction of $974,636.13. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 19,394 shares in the company, valued at $8,033,188.74. This represents a 10.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 2,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.11, for a total value of $902,242.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 14,640 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,004,010.40. This trade represents a 13.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Reliance

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Reliance in the second quarter valued at $2,171,081,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Reliance during the 2nd quarter worth $176,913,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Reliance during the 2nd quarter worth $142,900,000. Corient Private Wealth LP purchased a new stake in Reliance during the 2nd quarter worth $129,799,000. Finally, XXEC Inc. acquired a new position in Reliance in the 2nd quarter worth $127,493,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

About Reliance

Reliance, operating as Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co (NYSE: RS), is a diversified metals service center company. It distributes a broad range of metals, including carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, brass, titanium and specialty steel products, serving manufacturers, fabricators, construction companies and other industrial customers.

The company provides value-added services designed to prepare metals for customer use. These services include cutting, leveling, slitting, sawing, machining, forming, coating, welding and other fabrication processes.