Cynosure Group LLC Sells 392 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Cynosure Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 25.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,126 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 392 shares during the quarter. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $303,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of RS. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Reliance during the third quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in Reliance by 157.8% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in Reliance by 1,216.0% in the 4th 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 Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Reliance by 41.8% during the 4th 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on RS shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp boosted 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. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $294.43 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $15.60 billion, a PE ratio of 19.07 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $289.13 and a 200-day moving average of $290.84. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued 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). 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 the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

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.