Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Sold by Smartleaf Asset Management LLC

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 10.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 287 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 35 shares during the quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $76,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased 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 during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position 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. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in 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 worth $135,546,000 after buying an additional 25,750 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its position in Reliance by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $85,616,000 after buying an additional 20,056 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Reliance by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 285,871 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $82,677,000 after acquiring an additional 1,499 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance 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 directly owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 1.9 %

RS stock opened at $288.72 on Monday. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week high of $342.20. 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 $15.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.70 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $285.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.99.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.