4,914 Shares in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Purchased by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,914 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,374,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Reliance by 378.5% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,919 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,655,000 after buying an additional 4,682 shares in the last quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. increased its holdings in Reliance by 0.8% in the third quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. now owns 26,668 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,993,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC increased its holdings in Reliance by 35.2% in the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 47,759 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,357,000 after buying an additional 12,423 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in Reliance by 15.9% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 210,218 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $55,125,000 after buying an additional 28,889 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank purchased a new position in Reliance in the third quarter valued at about $8,173,000. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on RS. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.67.

Reliance Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of RS opened at $319.66 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.36 billion, a PE ratio of 14.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.67 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s fifty day moving average is $323.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $289.56. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $229.12 and a fifty-two 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.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 19.46%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.