Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 3,960 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 21.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,695 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 3,960 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in Reliance were worth $4,197,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in Reliance by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 51,053 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $17,062,000 after purchasing an additional 5,902 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 262.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 45,016 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $12,590,000 after purchasing an additional 32,580 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 2,870.9% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,981 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,331,000 after purchasing an additional 3,847 shares during the period. MMCAP International Inc. SPC bought a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at about $845,000. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Reliance by 1.9% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 159,878 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $53,644,000 after buying an additional 2,985 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company's stock.

Reliance Stock Up 1.4 %

RS stock traded up $3.91 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $277.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 281,650 shares, compared to its average volume of 318,337. The company's fifty day moving average price is $287.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $299.49. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $237.14 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 5.02 and a quick ratio of 2.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.98 and a beta of 0.85.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The industrial products company reported $4.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.73 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 14.73% and a net margin of 7.99%. The business's revenue was down 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.49 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 17.21 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were given a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. Reliance's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.55%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on RS. Wolfe Research cut Reliance from a "peer perform" rating to an "underperform" rating and set a $262.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $335.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Reliance from $341.00 to $325.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $329.40.

Reliance 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.