Vontobel Holding Ltd. Trims Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 16.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,746 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 340 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd boosted its stake in Reliance by 183.6% in the 3rd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Reliance by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Reliance by 187.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Reliance Trading Up 0.1 %

Reliance stock opened at $319.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $324.81 and a 200 day moving average of $290.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.14, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $229.12 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company has a current ratio of 5.66, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.81. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.31 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.87 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,592.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878 in the last three months. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.