Short Interest in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Decreases By 20.1%

Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 692,100 shares, a drop of 20.1% from the March 15th total of 866,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 246,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days. Approximately 1.2% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total value of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $968,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,592.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Reliance by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 480 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Reliance by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,023 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $286,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund boosted its holdings in Reliance by 11.0% in the third quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 444 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Paulson Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Reliance by 3.3% in the third quarter. Paulson Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,361 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $357,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in Reliance by 26.4% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $325.23. The company had a trading volume of 175,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 241,348. Reliance has a 52-week low of $229.12 and a 52-week high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.34, a PEG ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $321.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $288.24.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.81. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.31 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 9.02%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.87 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Reliance will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup downgraded Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $365.67.

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.