Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Lowers Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lowered its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 25.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,270 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 6,385 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in Reliance were worth $5,110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of RS. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Reliance by 378.5% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,919 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,655,000 after purchasing an additional 4,682 shares during the last quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. lifted its position in shares of Reliance by 0.8% during the third quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. now owns 26,668 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,993,000 after buying an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Reliance by 35.2% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 47,759 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,357,000 after buying an additional 12,423 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of Reliance by 15.9% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 210,218 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $55,125,000 after buying an additional 28,889 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the third quarter valued at about $8,173,000. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on RS shares. KeyCorp increased 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Citigroup lowered shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th.

Reliance Stock Performance

RS traded up $1.72 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $302.27. 327,334 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 261,210. Reliance, Inc. has a 1 year low of $229.12 and a 1 year high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 5.74 and a quick ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $314.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $296.76.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.51 by ($0.21). The business had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 16.26% and a net margin of 8.67%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $6.37 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 24th will be paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.55%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $12,918,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 54,042 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,452,863.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $12,918,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 54,042 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,452,863.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at $5,030,592.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 63,000 shares of company stock valued at $19,721,750 in the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.