Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd Trims Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd trimmed its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 16.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd’s holdings in Reliance were worth $269,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth about $78,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 1,216.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the period. Finally, Providence First Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Reliance during the 4th quarter worth about $90,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp increased 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Up 1.5 %

RS opened at $283.15 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $286.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.96. The company has a market cap of $15.00 billion, a PE ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87. 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 quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). The business had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. Sell-side analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. This is a positive change 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.