Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Reduces Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lessened its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 10.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 52,183 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 6,374 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned about 0.09% of Reliance worth $14,595,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 35.4% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 723,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,790,000 after purchasing an additional 189,326 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 68.6% in the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 193,347 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,699,000 after purchasing an additional 78,699 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 6.0% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 675,801 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $177,215,000 after purchasing an additional 37,971 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 536,462 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $150,038,000 after purchasing an additional 35,627 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 26.2% in the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 171,614 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $45,002,000 after purchasing an additional 35,627 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on RS shares. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Citigroup downgraded Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, KeyCorp upped 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.67.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at $5,030,592.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Reliance news, 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 transaction of $968,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,030,592.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at $27,091,176.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE:RS traded up $0.27 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $319.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 158,947 shares, compared to its average volume of 236,543. Reliance, Inc. has a 1 year low of $229.12 and a 1 year high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 5.66 and a quick ratio of 3.23. The stock has a market cap of $18.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.14, a PEG ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s fifty day moving average is $324.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.87.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 19.46%.

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.