Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Cuts Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC reduced its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 12.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 34,627 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 5,084 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned about 0.06% of Reliance worth $9,324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth 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. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 27.0% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 249 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $78,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management increased its holdings in Reliance by 35,700.0% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Reliance news, SVP William A. Smith II sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 16,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,420,491.79. This trade represents a 27.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark V. Kaminski sold 5,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.01, for a total value of $1,490,050.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,856,500. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on RS. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group started 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 reduced their price objective on Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $328.83.

Reliance Price Performance

NYSE:RS opened at $288.58 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $292.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.99. The stock has a market cap of $15.62 billion, a PE ratio of 15.85 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.31. Reliance, Inc. has a one year low of $256.98 and a one year high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.66 by ($0.02). Reliance had a return on equity of 13.68% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.00 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.16%.

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.