Cullen Investment Group LTD. Invests $204,000 in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. bought a new stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 612 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter worth about $186,693,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position 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 worth $189,790,000 after acquiring an additional 189,326 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position 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 worth $50,699,000 after acquiring an additional 78,699 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Reliance by 29.7% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 286,847 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $80,226,000 after acquiring an additional 65,691 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Reliance by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 885,818 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $247,746,000 after acquiring an additional 64,895 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.04, for a total transaction of $1,450,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 44,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,773,941.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.04, for a total value of $1,450,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 44,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,773,941.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $6,031,954.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,230,709.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 40,421 shares of company stock valued at $11,866,855. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Down 0.5 %

RS stock opened at $283.19 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.23 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $298.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $299.74. The company has a quick ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 5.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $237.14 and a 52 week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.51 by ($0.21). Reliance had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 16.26%. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $6.37 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 18.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 24th were paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.55%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th.

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.