Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Has $774,000 Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 11.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,873 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 389 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Reliance were worth $774,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in RS. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at $78,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in Reliance by 1,216.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Providence First Trust Co acquired a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter worth $90,000. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS opened at $287.68 on Tuesday. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $288.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.63 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. Reliance’s payout ratio is 31.09%.

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.