LPL Financial LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

LPL Financial LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 17.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,956 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 4,559 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC's holdings in Reliance were worth $5,912,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $114,971,000 after purchasing an additional 392,213 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Reliance by 53.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in Reliance during the fourth quarter worth about $46,979,000. Finally, Woodward Diversified Capital LLC bought a new stake in Reliance in the 4th quarter worth about $21,015,000. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on RS shares. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of 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 report on Wednesday, January 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $319.00.

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Reliance Stock Performance

RS traded up $1.77 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $279.38. The company had a trading volume of 357,831 shares, compared to its average volume of 399,792. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $285.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $250.07 and a 12-month high of $330.46. The stock has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a PE ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.83.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.04 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.