Raymond James Financial Inc. Invests $20.64 Million in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 76,655 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,640,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.14% of Reliance at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 26.7% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,371,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 127,806 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $36,963,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696 shares during the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Reliance by 232.9% during the 4th quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,499,000 after purchasing an additional 6,493 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,600,000. Finally, Swedbank AB increased its position in shares of Reliance by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 42,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,402,000 after purchasing an additional 11,887 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $283.15 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $286.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $289.96. The company has a market capitalization of $15.00 billion, a PE ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RS. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company 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.