FourThought Financial Partners LLC Takes $373,000 Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,385 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $373,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Reliance by 6,311.2% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after buying an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Reliance by 53.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after buying an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $46,979,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Reliance by 27,269.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 112,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,453,000 after buying an additional 111,803 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Woodward Diversified Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $21,015,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of RS opened at $296.22 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.03 billion, a PE ratio of 19.19 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $282.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.55.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total value of $1,260,618.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,569,396.30. This represents a 4.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.