Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Bought by Flputnam Investment Management Co.

Flputnam Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 16.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 10,262 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 1,473 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $2,870,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Reliance by 212.0% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 6,876 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,261,000 after buying an additional 4,672 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Reliance by 0.8% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 11,264 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,065,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,533,000. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its position in shares of Reliance by 8.2% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 40,567 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,679,000 after buying an additional 3,058 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Reliance by 14.6% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 35,984 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,602,000 after buying an additional 4,573 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on RS. KeyCorp boosted their price objective 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. Citigroup downgraded shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.67.

Reliance Price Performance

RS opened at $322.88 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $229.12 and a 52-week high of $342.20. The company has a 50 day moving average of $323.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $289.11. The company has a market cap of $18.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28, a P/E/G ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.87 earnings per share. Reliance’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $1.10 per share. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is presently 19.46%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,091,176.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $27,091,176.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance 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.