American Century Companies Inc. Increases Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 1,127.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 426,986 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 392,213 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.79% of Reliance worth $114,971,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in RS. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Reliance during the 4th quarter worth about $7,352,000. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 26.7% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,198 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares in the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 232.9% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $4,600,000. Finally, Swedbank AB raised its stake in Reliance by 38.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 42,881 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $12,402,000 after buying an additional 11,887 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company's stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating and a $341.00 target price for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Reliance presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE:RS traded down $0.48 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $293.85. 268,576 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 370,269. The company's 50 day moving average price is $288.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $290.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week 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.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. This is a positive change from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

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.