Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases Shares of 76,655 Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 76,655 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,640,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter valued at about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Reliance by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Reliance during the third quarter worth about $78,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in Reliance by 1,216.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the period. Finally, Providence First Trust Co acquired a new stake in Reliance during the fourth quarter worth about $90,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on RS shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research raised 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value 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 trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of RS opened at $283.15 on Monday. 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, 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 two-hundred day moving average is $289.96. The firm has a market cap of $15.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business 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%. Analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.09%.

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.