Legal & General Group Plc Sells 85,064 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 23.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 275,052 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 85,064 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Reliance were worth $74,061,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of RS. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at $7,352,000. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares during the period. Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 232.9% during the 4th quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,499,000 after purchasing an additional 6,493 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,600,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Reliance by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,951 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,332,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Reliance Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $279.38 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $285.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $290.06. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $250.07 and a 12-month high of $330.46. The company has a market capitalization of $14.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.83.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.09%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on RS. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $319.00.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Company 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.