Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Sold by Invesco Ltd.

Invesco Ltd. cut its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 58.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 325,820 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 455,469 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $87,730,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in Reliance by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 10,122 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,725,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 25.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 507,618 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $136,681,000 after acquiring an additional 101,733 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 73,902 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $19,899,000 after acquiring an additional 13,506 shares in the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,472,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings in Reliance by 18.3% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 70,186 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $18,898,000 after purchasing an additional 10,841 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $279.38 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $285.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $250.07 and a 52-week high of $330.46.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company 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 represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $319.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.