HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Sells 151 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC reduced its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 151 shares during the quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $641,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter worth $186,255,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 1,127.9% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $114,971,000 after buying an additional 392,213 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $195,402,000 after buying an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter worth about $46,979,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on RS shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $289.24 on Wednesday. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $288.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $290.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market cap of $15.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The business had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.