Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Decreases Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA reduced its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 10.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,867 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 6,178 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned 0.10% of Reliance worth $14,504,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in Reliance by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,002,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,077,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 4,333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,167,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,234 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $332,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were 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 approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RS. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $289.24 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $15.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $288.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $290.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. Reliance, Inc. has a one year low of $256.98 and a one year high of $342.20.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.