National Pension Service Decreases Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

National Pension Service decreased its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 87,100 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 4,900 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.16% of Reliance worth $23,453,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 26.7% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,198 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $2,371,000 after buying an additional 1,729 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Reliance by 24.2% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 27,916 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $8,074,000 after acquiring an additional 5,431 shares during the last quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC lifted its stake in Reliance by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Dearborn Partners LLC now owns 86,406 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $24,989,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419 shares in the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 232.9% during the 4th quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,281 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,499,000 after purchasing an additional 6,493 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Reliance by 1.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 127,806 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $36,963,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on RS shares. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $341.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE RS traded down $0.61 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $280.62. The stock had a trading volume of 143,835 shares, compared to its average volume of 426,320. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $256.98 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $284.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.90. The company has a market capitalization of $15.19 billion, a PE ratio of 18.16 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 business 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 research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a boost from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. Reliance's payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.