Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Has $7.37 Million Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina decreased its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 27,361 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,144 shares during the quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in Reliance were worth $7,367,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 6,311.2% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after buying an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at about $186,255,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 1,127.9% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $114,971,000 after purchasing an additional 392,213 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in Reliance during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $46,979,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $319.00.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $279.38 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.83. Reliance, Inc. has a one year low of $250.07 and a one year high of $330.46. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $285.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $290.06. 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 (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.72%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

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.