Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 55 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $1,167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in Reliance by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,002,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Reliance by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,077,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,234 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $332,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Reliance by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 2,694 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $725,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Reliance Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $288.72 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $289.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $290.74. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The company has a market cap of $15.29 billion, a PE ratio of 18.70 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The business had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is an increase 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%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Insider Activity at Reliance

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus 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.