Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Has $1.14 Million Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 18.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,091 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $1,144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,197,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $313,942,000 after purchasing an additional 12,166 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Reliance by 35.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 723,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,790,000 after buying an additional 189,326 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Reliance by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 675,801 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $177,215,000 after buying an additional 37,971 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 536,462 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $150,038,000 after buying an additional 35,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Reliance by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 324,868 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $85,190,000 after buying an additional 1,465 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $313.49 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 5.66 and a quick ratio of 3.23. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $229.12 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $325.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $291.25. The company has a market cap of $18.00 billion, a PE ratio of 13.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.48 by ($0.18). Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $6.37 earnings per share. Reliance’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.46%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $12,918,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,452,863.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $12,918,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 54,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,452,863.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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 dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,592.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.