Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Position Trimmed by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. lowered its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,429,240 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 96,730 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 0.12% of Reliance worth $1,731,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Reliance by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,402,000 after buying an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its stake in Reliance by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 716,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $192,894,000 after buying an additional 50,528 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $135,546,000 after buying an additional 25,750 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 1,127.9% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $114,971,000 after acquiring an additional 392,213 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE RS opened at $294.41 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $288.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.25. The company has a market capitalization of $15.60 billion, a PE ratio of 19.07 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Reliance’s payout ratio is 31.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.