Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Sold by Schroder Investment Management Group

Schroder Investment Management Group lowered its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,142 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 302 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in Reliance were worth $5,096,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allstate Corp bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $451,000. DnB Asset Management AS increased its position in shares of Reliance by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 12,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,283,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter worth $282,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at $133,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Reliance during the fourth quarter worth about $186,255,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Performance

Reliance stock opened at $264.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The company has a market cap of $14.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $256.98 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $288.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.70.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for 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 research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 yield of 1.82%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

Insider Activity

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RS has been the subject of several research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Five investment 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 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.