Swiss National Bank Sells 14,700 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Swiss National Bank lessened its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 155,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 14,700 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Reliance were worth $41,843,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $135,546,000 after purchasing an additional 25,750 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 397,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $107,018,000 after purchasing an additional 2,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $85,616,000 after purchasing an additional 20,056 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 1.5 %

RS opened at $283.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $256.98 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a PE ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50-day moving average is $286.94 and its 200 day moving average is $289.96.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. As a group, research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

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 shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.