Occidental Asset Management LLC Acquires 898 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Occidental Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 16,494 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 898 shares during the quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $4,441,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP bought a new position in Reliance in the third quarter worth about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Reliance by 157.8% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Reliance by 27.0% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 249 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Reliance during the third quarter valued at approximately $78,000. Finally, Abound Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 35,700.0% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total value of $1,260,618.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,569,396.30. This trade represents a 4.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP William A. Smith II sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.71, for a total value of $2,091,115.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,849 shares in the company, valued at $5,420,491.79. The trade was a 27.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,856,500 in the last quarter. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on RS. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target for the company. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $328.83.

Reliance Stock Performance

RS opened at $284.41 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $293.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $289.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 3.31 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market cap of $15.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.62 and a beta of 0.91. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.66 by ($0.02). Reliance had a return on equity of 13.68% and a net margin of 7.42%. The business had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.00 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.16%.

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.