HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 405 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

HighTower Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 49,596 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 405 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC owned 0.09% of Reliance worth $13,354,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 6,311.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after acquiring an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 53.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after acquiring an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Reliance by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $135,546,000 after acquiring an additional 25,750 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 397,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $107,018,000 after acquiring an additional 2,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in Reliance by 7.3% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $85,616,000 after acquiring an additional 20,056 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Reliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

RS stock opened at $283.15 on Monday. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $256.98 and a 12 month high of $342.20. 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 50-day moving average price of $286.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.96. The stock has a market cap of $15.00 billion, a PE ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 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.