Norges Bank Buys New Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 691,729 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $186,255,000. Norges Bank owned approximately 1.28% of Reliance as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in 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 worth $114,971,000 after buying an additional 392,213 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at about $46,979,000. Finally, Woodward Diversified Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Reliance during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $21,015,000. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on RS shares. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

Reliance stock traded down $11.00 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $264.32. The company's stock had a trading volume of 660,220 shares, compared to its average volume of 392,353. The company has a market capitalization of $14.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 0.87. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $288.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $290.63. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. 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 (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 company 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%. Sell-side analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. This is an increase from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is 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.