Bank of Montreal Can Buys 616 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 6.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,122 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in Reliance were worth $2,725,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Reliance by 6,311.2% during 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 last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 4th quarter worth $186,255,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 392,213 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Reliance by 53.5% in the 4th 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 period. Finally, Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in Reliance during the 4th quarter worth $46,979,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS stock opened at $276.85 on Wednesday. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $250.07 and a 12 month high of $326.87. The company has a market capitalization of $14.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.93 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $285.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $289.89. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp raised their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $319.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.