Royce & Associates LP Decreases Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Royce & Associates LP trimmed its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 166,958 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 2,443 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Reliance were worth $48,286,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Reliance by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 51,053 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $17,062,000 after purchasing an additional 5,902 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in Reliance by 2,870.9% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,981 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,331,000 after acquiring an additional 3,847 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co boosted its stake in Reliance by 24.2% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 107,735 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $36,005,000 after acquiring an additional 20,981 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in Reliance during the 1st quarter worth $1,637,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 10.1% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 30,181 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $10,086,000 after purchasing an additional 2,761 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Reliance news, SVP William A. Smith II sold 6,500 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.71, for a total transaction of $2,091,115.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 16,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,420,491.79. The trade was a 27.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 6,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.18, for a total value of $2,014,715.76. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,941,574.10. This trade represents a 40.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,832 shares of company stock valued at $5,595,881 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on RS shares. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded Reliance from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $262.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $326.40.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS stock opened at $310.04 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.03 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50 day moving average of $290.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $289.83. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $261.77 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.66 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.38 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 7.42% and a return on equity of 13.68%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.00 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.45 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.16%.

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.