Reliance Steel & Aluminum Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Investors hope Reliance Steel & Aluminum (NYS: RS) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.02 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Feb. 16. Reliance Steel & Aluminum provides metals processing services. It distributes a line of more than 100,000 metal products, including alloy, aluminum, brass, copper, carbon steel, stainless steel, and titanium.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock. Only one rates it as a sell, while seven recommend it as a buy. Analysts like Reliance Steel & Aluminum better than competitor Worthington Industries overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.

  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.95 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 23.4% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.78 per share. Estimates range from $0.75 to $0.82.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly supporting the stock, with 95.8% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 95.8% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools feel positively about Reliance Steel & Aluminum and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 172 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Reliance Steel & Aluminum's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Reliance Steel & Aluminum's profit has risen year over year by an average of 46.1% over the past five quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. The company's net margins have been increasing year over year for the last three quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of revenue becomes profit. Here are Reliance Steel & Aluminum's reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

23.1%

24.9%

26.5%

24.9%

Operating Margin

6.6%

8.1%

8.1%

4.9%

Net Margin

4%

4.8%

4.8%

2.5%

For all our Reliance Steel & Aluminum-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Reliance Steel & Aluminum to My Watchlist.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

At the time thisarticle was published

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