Edward Lehner (Insider Trades), CEO and president of Ryerson Holding Corp. (RYI), bought 2,000 shares of the company on April 4. The average price per share was $5.27 for a total transaction cost of $10,540. Ryerson Holding Corp., a distributor and processor of metals, has a market cap of $163.07 million and a P/S ratio of 0.05.
The number of insider trades increased from 2014 to 2015. There were 10 insider buys of 188,000 shares in 2014 and 30 insider buys of 79,100 shares in 2015. There were no insider transactions in 2013. Including the transaction mentioned above, Lehner acquired 57,000 shares of the company in 26 transactions. Lehner’s earliest transactions of 10,000 shares in $11 per share decreased in value by about half since the purchase. Lehner also made four out of the eight transactions in January to April. The increase in insider buys in 2015 corresponds to a decrease in month end price. 
For more information about insider trades with RYI, click here.
For the fourth quarter of 2015, the company reported net loss of $20.5 million, or 64 cents per share. This is down from a net income of $4.8 million, or 15 cents per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Net sales and gross profit decreased from $868.4 million to $668.8 million, and $142.2 million to $101.6 million when comparing the same quarters. Lehner said the fourth quarter was “one of the harshest and most difficult metals environments” the company has seen. But despite the adversity, Lehner stated that the company “has never been better as seen through our cost reduction actions, out working capital management, cash generation and industry market share gains.” Annual net income for RYI decreased by 6.4% since 2011, but annual net income follows an increasing trend line. 
Ryerson announced the promotion of Leong Fang to vice president of operations on March 29. This is in addition to Fang’s responsibilities as CEO in Asia. Lehner said Fang and his team have done an outstanding job in transforming the company’s China businesses.
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