Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes $7.35 Million Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 27,304 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,352,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in Reliance by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Reliance by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,077,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Reliance by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 2,694 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $725,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Reliance by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 982 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Reliance by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 651 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $175,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Price Performance

Reliance stock opened at $283.15 on Monday. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $256.98 and a 12 month high of $342.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $286.94 and its 200-day moving average is $289.96. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted 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). The firm 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.17.

Reliance 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.