Cornerstone Capital Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Cornerstone Capital Inc. trimmed its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 11.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 67,713 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 9,167 shares during the quarter. Reliance accounts for approximately 1.9% of Cornerstone Capital Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Cornerstone Capital Inc. owned 0.13% of Reliance worth $18,232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Reliance by 6,311.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $219,841,000 after acquiring an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at about $186,255,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 1,127.9% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $114,971,000 after acquiring an additional 392,213 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 53.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $195,402,000 after acquiring an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,382,916 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $372,364,000 after purchasing an additional 185,873 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.35% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on RS. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $319.00.

Reliance Stock Up 0.5 %

RS traded up $1.53 on Thursday, reaching $284.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 168,030 shares, compared to its average volume of 447,059. The company has a market capitalization of $15.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.44 and a beta of 0.83. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $250.07 and a fifty-two week high of $326.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $283.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $289.53.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $3.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.66 by $0.11. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The company had revenue of $3.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.44 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.20 per share. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. This is an increase from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Reliance's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

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.