Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Increases Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 27.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 32,611 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,950 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned about 0.06% of Reliance worth $9,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 183.6% during the 3rd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 187.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $314.00 on Wednesday. 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 capitalization of $18.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $229.12 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $324.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.87 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors 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. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 19.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the company’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 transaction, 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 at this link. In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the company’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 transaction, 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 at this link. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at $27,091,176.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

About Reliance

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.