Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC Decreases Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 108,577 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 2,774 shares during the period. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.20% of Reliance worth $29,235,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Reliance by 157.8% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Reliance by 1,216.0% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the period. Providence First Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter worth about $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 41.8% in 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 during the period. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RS has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Down 2.5 %

RS stock opened at $286.34 on Monday. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $289.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $290.64. The company has a market capitalization of $15.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $256.98 and a twelve month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for 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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.