Pinebridge Investments L.P. Increases Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Pinebridge Investments L.P. lifted its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 42.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 15,840 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,694 shares during the period. Pinebridge Investments L.P.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $4,265,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in RS. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Transce3nd LLC purchased a new position in Reliance in the 4th quarter worth about $58,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in Reliance by 1,216.0% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co purchased a new stake in Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at about $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Reliance by 41.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Reliance Price Performance

NYSE RS opened at $284.54 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $15.05 billion, a PE ratio of 18.43 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $283.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $289.54. 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 52-week low of $250.07 and a 52-week high of $326.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $3.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.66 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.44 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the 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 owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RS. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $319.00.

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.