Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Acquired by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 18.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,592 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,018 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.08% of Reliance worth $12,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $219,841,000 after buying an additional 803,730 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 53.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $195,402,000 after buying an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $135,546,000 after buying an additional 25,750 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 7.3% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $85,616,000 after buying an additional 20,056 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 0.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 285,871 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $82,677,000 after buying an additional 1,499 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total transaction of $1,260,618.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at $27,569,396.30. This represents a 4.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp upped their target price 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 raised Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $341.00 target price for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Up 0.8 %

RS traded up $2.36 on Friday, reaching $297.36. The company's stock had a trading volume of 418,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 430,589. The stock has a market cap of $16.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.26 and a beta of 0.91. Reliance, Inc. has a 1 year low of $256.98 and a 1 year high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The business's 50 day moving average is $283.62 and its 200 day moving average is $289.62.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. This is a boost from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

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.