American International Group Inc. Cuts Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

American International Group Inc. lowered its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 77,633 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 4,867 shares during the quarter. American International Group Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $21,712,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 378.5% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,919 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,655,000 after purchasing an additional 4,682 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 262.0% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 45,016 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,590,000 after purchasing an additional 32,580 shares during the period. MMCAP International Inc. SPC purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $845,000. Vest Financial LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 12,423 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 28,889 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Down 0.9 %

RS stock traded down $2.38 on Friday, reaching $277.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 423,959 shares, compared to its average volume of 339,382. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $301.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $299.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.21 and a current ratio of 5.74. The firm has a market cap of $15.91 billion, a PE ratio of 12.95, a PEG ratio of 6.50 and a beta of 0.90. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $237.14 and a 12-month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 16.26% and a net margin of 8.67%. Reliance’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $6.37 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 18.77 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 24th were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Reliance’s payout ratio is presently 20.55%.

Insider Activity

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on RS. StockNews.com lowered Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th.

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.