Schroder Investment Management Group Has $5.10 Million Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Schroder Investment Management Group lowered its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund 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 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance in the third quarter worth about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in Reliance by 1,216.0% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co acquired a new stake in Reliance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in Reliance by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Reliance Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of RS stock opened at $264.32 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 1 year low of $256.98 and a 1 year high of $342.20. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $288.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.70. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. 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. 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on RS shares. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.