Reliance Steel & Aluminum Sees Q1 Earnings Below Estimates - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - While reporting its fourth-quarter financial results today, Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (RS) provided earnings outlook for the first quarter of 2016 below analysts' estimates.

For the first quarter of 2016, Reliance Steel & Aluminum forecast adjusted earnings per share in a range of $0.80 to $0.90. On average, seven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to earn $1.03 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Reliance said it estimates a sequential increase in tons sold of approximately 6 percent to 8 percent in the first quarter of 2016 over the preceding fourth quarter of 2015, which includes both the normal seasonal increase in shipping volumes compared to the fourth quarter and additional volume from Tubular Steel, Inc.

Further, the company believes that metals pricing for most products it sells has stabilized at the current low levels, with the potential to improve slightly in the first quarter. Accordingly, the company projects average selling price in the first quarter of 2016 to be flat to up 1.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015.