Franklin Resources Inc. Raises Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 29.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 145,627 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 33,562 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.27% of Reliance worth $39,212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the third quarter worth $3,141,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $41,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its position in Reliance by 47.6% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 4,558 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,318,000 after buying an additional 1,469 shares during the period. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $12,389,000. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth $2,824,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other Reliance 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 value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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Reliance Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:RS traded down $10.16 during trading on Thursday, hitting $270.12. 73,967 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 396,532. The company has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.54 and a beta of 0.83. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $286.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.20. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $250.07 and a 52-week high of $334.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate 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 predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.20 dividend. This is an increase from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $329.17.

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.