New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 6,740 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 7.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 81,218 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 6,740 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Reliance were worth $22,715,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in Reliance in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Reliance in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its holdings in Reliance by 183.6% in the third quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in Reliance by 26.4% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Reliance by 187.9% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $968,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,030,592.15. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Reliance news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $968,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,030,592.15. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at $26,963,809.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878 in the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Reliance Stock Down 0.6 %

RS opened at $290.42 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 5.74. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $229.12 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $324.88 and its 200 day moving average is $291.41. The stock has a market cap of $16.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.51 by ($0.21). The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 16.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $6.37 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be paid a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 23rd. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 20.55%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $362.33.

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.