Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Reduces Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund reduced its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,045 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 132 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Reliance were worth $2,974,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP bought a new position in Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Reliance by 157.8% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth $78,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Reliance by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abound Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 35,700.0% during the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $295.03 on Friday. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year 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. The stock has a market cap of $15.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.11 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $283.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.62.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 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 analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on RS. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.