Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Sold by Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund cut its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,045 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 132 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Reliance were worth $2,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Reliance by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,402,000 after buying an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $46,979,000. Woodward Diversified Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $21,015,000. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in Reliance by 68.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 139,660 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $40,391,000 after acquiring an additional 56,933 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS opened at $295.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $256.98 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $283.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $289.62. The company has a market capitalization of $15.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.11 and a beta of 0.91.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

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.