Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 4,679 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Prudential Financial Inc. lessened its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 46.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,363 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 4,679 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.'s holdings in Reliance were worth $1,444,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $219,841,000 after acquiring an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Reliance by 1,127.9% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $114,971,000 after purchasing an additional 392,213 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Reliance by 53.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in Reliance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,979,000. Finally, Woodward Diversified Capital LLC acquired a new position in Reliance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $21,015,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 90,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on RS shares. KeyCorp boosted their price objective 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 shares of Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of NYSE RS traded down $2.62 during trading on Thursday, reaching $277.66. The company had a trading volume of 50,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 464,709. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $250.07 and a 52 week high of $332.56. The stock has a market cap of $14.71 billion, a PE ratio of 17.98 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The business's 50 day moving average price is $286.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $290.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last released 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 analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. Analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. This is a boost from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.