Franklin Resources Inc. Purchases 33,562 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 29.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 145,627 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,562 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.27% of Reliance worth $39,212,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $186,255,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 1,127.9% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $114,971,000 after buying an additional 392,213 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Reliance by 53.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,402,000 after acquiring an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter valued at $46,979,000. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’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 directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on RS. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Down 4.0 %

Reliance stock opened at $264.32 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $288.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $256.98 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly 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). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.20 dividend. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

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.