Karla R. Lewis Sells 31,136 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Stock

Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Reliance Stock Performance

Reliance stock opened at $294.23 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $283.00 and its 200-day moving average is $289.58. The company has a market cap of $15.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.06 and a beta of 0.90. 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 12 month low of $256.98 and a 12 month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. Equities analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.09%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Reliance

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth 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 in 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. grew its stake in Reliance by 1,127.9% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $114,971,000 after purchasing an additional 392,213 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Reliance by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,709,737 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $998,886,000 after purchasing an additional 319,576 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

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.