Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Stake Boosted by Loomis Sayles & Co. L P

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 48,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,640 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Reliance were worth $12,982,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 1,127.9% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $114,971,000 after purchasing an additional 392,213 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Reliance by 53.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter worth $46,979,000. Finally, Woodward Diversified Capital LLC acquired a new position in Reliance during the fourth quarter worth $21,015,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on RS. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp boosted 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $286.34 on Friday. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $256.98 and a 12 month high of $342.20. The company has a market cap of $15.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s 50 day moving average is $289.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.38. 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 (NYSE:RS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. On average, equities analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

About Reliance

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.