Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) CEO Karla R. Lewis Sells 31,136 Shares

Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE:RS traded down $2.99 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $296.22. The stock had a trading volume of 479,075 shares, compared to its average volume of 439,424. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $256.98 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The stock has a market cap of $16.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.19 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $282.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $289.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price for the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.17.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Reliance

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RS. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Reliance by 26.1% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 33,713 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $9,750,000 after buying an additional 6,985 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Reliance by 27,269.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 112,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,453,000 after acquiring an additional 111,803 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Reliance by 9.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 8,769 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,536,000 after acquiring an additional 777 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Reliance by 112.5% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 8,569 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,482,000 after acquiring an additional 4,537 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden increased its stake in Reliance by 6.6% in the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 11,300 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,268,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Reliance Company Profile

Reliance, Inc 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.