Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Acquired by Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $3,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 53.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,979,000. Woodward Diversified Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $21,015,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $20,640,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.17.

Reliance Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE RS opened at $283.38 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.01 billion, a PE ratio of 18.35 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $285.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $289.99.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.20 per share. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance 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.