Vestcor Inc Sells 1,835 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Vestcor Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 40.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,835 shares during the quarter. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Reliance were worth $742,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 26.7% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 1.3% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 127,806 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,963,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696 shares during the period. Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 232.9% in the fourth quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,499,000 after purchasing an additional 6,493 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $4,600,000. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 38.4% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 42,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,402,000 after purchasing an additional 11,887 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price for the company. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Reliance stock opened at $283.15 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $15.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $286.94 and its 200 day moving average is $289.96. 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 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). The business had revenue of $3.13 billion for 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio 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.