Royce & Associates LP Sells 27,405 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Royce & Associates LP lowered its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 16.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 139,553 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 27,405 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Reliance were worth $37,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position 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 worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $78,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Providence First Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $90,000. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS opened at $283.15 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $286.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $289.88. 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 company has a market cap of $15.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued 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). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The business had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. 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 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. 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.