PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Raises Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,660 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 245 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $2,332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of RS. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Reliance in the third quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in Reliance in the third quarter valued at approximately $78,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in Reliance by 1,216.0% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the period. Finally, Providence First Trust Co purchased a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $90,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Five 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, Reliance currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Up 1.5 %

RS stock opened at $283.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $286.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $289.85. The firm has a market cap of $15.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Reliance’s 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Reliance Company 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.