Blue Trust Inc. Sells 760 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Blue Trust Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 74.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 264 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 760 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $71,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter valued at about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter valued at about $78,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Reliance by 35,700.0% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total transaction of $1,260,618.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,569,396.30. The trade was a 4.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Reliance from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of 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 company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $328.17.

Reliance Price Performance

RS stock opened at $301.06 on Monday. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $281.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $289.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.09%.

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.