AIA Group Ltd Buys Shares of 4,914 Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

AIA Group Ltd bought a new position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 4,914 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,374,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Worth Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Reliance in the first quarter worth $28,000. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Penserra Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 183.6% in the 3rd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on RS shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.67.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In related news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $12,918,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 54,042 shares in the company, valued at $17,452,863.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $12,918,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,042 shares in the company, valued at $17,452,863.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,592.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Reliance Stock Performance

RS opened at $319.66 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $323.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $289.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $229.12 and a 12-month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.31 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $5.87 earnings per share. Reliance’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

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

Reliance Company 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.