Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 389 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,873 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 389 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Reliance were worth $774,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter worth $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $78,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 1,216.0% during the 4th 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 period. Finally, Providence First Trust Co bought a new position in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $90,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Price Performance

Reliance stock opened at $287.68 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $288.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.08. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $256.98 and a 12 month high of $342.20. The company has a market capitalization of $15.24 billion, a PE ratio of 18.63 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The business had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current 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 $1.20 dividend. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.