Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Acquires 8,589 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 226.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,390 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,589 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd's holdings in Reliance were worth $3,336,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in 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 buying an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 7.3% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $85,616,000 after buying an additional 20,056 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 0.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 285,871 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $82,677,000 after buying an additional 1,499 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Reliance by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 203,156 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $58,755,000 after buying an additional 528 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of Reliance stock traded up $2.36 on Friday, reaching $297.36. The stock had a trading volume of 418,884 shares, compared to its average volume of 430,436. The business's 50 day moving average is $283.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $289.62. The company has a market cap of $16.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.26 and a beta of 0.91. Reliance, Inc. has a 1 year low of $256.98 and a 1 year high of $342.20. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last posted 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). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. 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.