MetLife Investment Management LLC Buys 2,031 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 7.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,504 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,031 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Reliance worth $8,214,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in Reliance by 1,216.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $90,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Reliance by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abound Wealth Management raised its position in Reliance by 35,700.0% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related 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 sale, the chief executive officer now 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Reliance Price Performance

RS opened at $271.83 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $284.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $289.64. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $250.07 and a twelve month high of $326.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market capitalization of $14.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.61 and a beta of 0.83.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Equities analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RS has been the topic of several recent 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 increased their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $319.00.

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.