Short Interest in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Drops By 43.7%

Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) saw a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 776,800 shares, a drop of 43.7% from the March 15th total of 1,380,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 474,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.6 days. Approximately 1.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Reliance

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 224.6% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 185 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted 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 during the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 83.7% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 259 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Reliance by 1,216.0% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Price Performance

NYSE:RS opened at $276.85 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $285.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $289.89. 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 $14.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.93 and a beta of 0.83. Reliance has a one year low of $250.07 and a one year high of $326.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued 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 return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Equities analysts expect that Reliance will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Reliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $319.00.

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.