DnB Asset Management AS Raises Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

DnB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 288 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Reliance were worth $3,283,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on RS shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE:RS opened at $288.72 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market cap of $15.29 billion, a PE ratio of 18.70 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $289.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $290.74. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly 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 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 analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. 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 dividend yield of 1.66%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.