Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Sold by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lowered its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 10.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 53,867 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 6,178 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Reliance were worth $14,504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance during the third quarter valued at $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 157.8% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on RS. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’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 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of RS opened at $289.24 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $288.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.82. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $256.98 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. On average, equities research 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. 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.