Bank of Nova Scotia Sells 869 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Bank of Nova Scotia lessened its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 31.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,937 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 869 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Reliance were worth $522,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth 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 raised its position in shares of Reliance by 1,216.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter worth approximately $90,000. 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 valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Wealth Management raised its holdings in Reliance by 35,700.0% during the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RS. KeyCorp increased their price objective 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. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $319.00.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $278.16 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $285.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $289.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.02 and a beta of 0.83. 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 one year low of $250.07 and a one year high of $330.46.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. This is a boost 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 1.73%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.