Swiss National Bank Sells 14,700 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Swiss National Bank reduced its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 155,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 14,700 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.29% of Reliance worth $41,843,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after buying an additional 803,730 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Reliance by 53.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Reliance by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $135,546,000 after purchasing an additional 25,750 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Reliance by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 397,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $107,018,000 after purchasing an additional 2,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its position in Reliance by 7.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 20,056 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Reliance Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:RS opened at $283.15 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $286.94 and a 200-day moving average of $289.96. The company has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a PE ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted 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). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. On average, equities analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted 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 research 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 has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Reliance 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.