Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Cuts Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lowered its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 222,589 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 3,768 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $74,385,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in Reliance in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Reliance in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Reliance in the first quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Partnership Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Rational Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 33.6% during the first quarter. Rational Advisors LLC now owns 159 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:RS traded down $4.10 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $304.05. The company had a trading volume of 452,751 shares, compared to its average volume of 395,477. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 5.02 and a quick ratio of 3.21. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $291.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $302.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.20 and a beta of 0.86. Reliance, Inc. has a one year low of $237.14 and a one year high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The industrial products company reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.73 by ($0.08). Reliance had a return on equity of 14.73% and a net margin of 7.99%. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $6.49 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 18.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th will be issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 16th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.55%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.81, for a total value of $1,449,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 49,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,212,862.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.81, for a total value of $1,449,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 49,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,212,862.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Stephen Paul Koch sold 20,421 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $6,031,954.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 7,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,230,709.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 40,421 shares of company stock valued at $11,866,855. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on RS. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 26th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $341.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Reliance from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $262.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday. Citigroup lowered shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.40.

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.