Foster & Motley Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Foster & Motley Inc. lowered its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 13,387 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 374 shares during the period. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $3,744,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new position in Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its holdings in Reliance by 183.6% during the 3rd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in Reliance by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Reliance by 187.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RS has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Citigroup downgraded Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $968,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,592.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Reliance Stock Up 0.0 %

RS opened at $319.54 on Tuesday. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $229.12 and a 12 month high of $342.20. The stock has a market cap of $18.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.14, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $324.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $290.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 5.66 and a quick ratio of 3.23.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.81. Reliance had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 9.02%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.31 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $5.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.46%.

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.