Westpac Banking Corp Sells 5,326 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Westpac Banking Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 28.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,186 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 5,326 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp's holdings in Reliance were worth $3,550,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of RS. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Reliance by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,479,542 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $398,381,000 after purchasing an additional 138,866 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Reliance by 6,311.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $219,841,000 after acquiring an additional 803,730 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Reliance by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 716,280 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $192,894,000 after purchasing an additional 50,528 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter worth approximately $186,255,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company's stock.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance 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 transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Reliance stock traded up $6.25 on Tuesday, reaching $269.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 122,188 shares, compared to its average volume of 393,477. The business's fifty day moving average price is $287.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $290.64. 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 company has a market cap of $14.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.52 and a beta of 0.83. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $250.07 and a twelve month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Equities analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance's payout ratio is 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.