Franklin Resources Inc. Acquires 33,562 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 29.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 145,627 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,562 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $39,212,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quarry LP bought a new position in Reliance in the third quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased 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 buying an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co bought a new stake in Reliance during the fourth quarter worth $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Reliance by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Five 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.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Reliance Trading Down 4.0 %

Shares of RS stock opened at $264.32 on Friday. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company has a market capitalization of $14.00 billion, a PE ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $288.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.63. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. As a group, analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s payout ratio is presently 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.