Allstate Corp Invests $451,000 in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Allstate Corp bought a new position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $451,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew 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 buying an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted 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 worth $195,402,000 after acquiring an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in Reliance by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 716,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $192,894,000 after acquiring an additional 50,528 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $186,255,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $135,546,000 after purchasing an additional 25,750 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related 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 owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, 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 SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp boosted their target price 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. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS opened at $289.24 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The stock has a market cap of $15.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $288.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.82.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.09%.

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.