Sterling Capital Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 46.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,198 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 1,020 shares during the quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC's holdings in Reliance were worth $861,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Reliance by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 76,131 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $22,017,000 after buying an additional 7,373 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,600,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in Reliance by 10.3% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,396 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,139,000 after acquiring an additional 691 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 4.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 112,065 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $32,909,000 after acquiring an additional 4,821 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Reliance by 19.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 472,730 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $136,718,000 after acquiring an additional 77,937 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company's 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. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.35% of the company's stock.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of Reliance stock traded up $7.93 on Tuesday, hitting $279.78. 266,249 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 402,286. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $250.07 and a 12-month high of $326.87. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market cap of $14.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.12 and a beta of 0.83. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $284.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $289.57.

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 analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.04 billion. Analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. This is a positive change from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $319.00.

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.