Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Bought by Wedge Capital Management L L P NC

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 27.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 32,611 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,950 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $9,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its position in Reliance by 183.6% in the third quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Reliance by 26.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Reliance by 187.9% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:RS opened at $314.00 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $324.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $290.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $229.12 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.81. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.31 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.87 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.