Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Sold by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Alliancebernstein L.P. trimmed its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 81,802 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 5,639 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.15% of Reliance worth $22,026,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Reliance during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $186,255,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Reliance by 1,127.9% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $114,971,000 after acquiring an additional 392,213 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edge Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 4th quarter valued at $46,979,000. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $319.00.

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Reliance Trading Up 0.6 %

RS traded up $1.77 during trading on Friday, hitting $279.38. 357,831 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 399,792. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $285.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $290.06. Reliance, Inc. has a 1 year low of $250.07 and a 1 year high of $330.46. The firm has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.83.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company's stock.

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.