Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Stake Lessened by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System trimmed its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 121,527 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 8,927 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.22% of Reliance worth $32,722,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quent Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in Reliance by 0.4% during 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 last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings 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 period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised 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. lifted its position in shares of Reliance by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,234 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $332,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research 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 note on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $294.43 on Thursday. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company has a market cap of $15.60 billion, a PE ratio of 19.07 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $289.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $290.84. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced 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 analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. On average, equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

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.