Flputnam Investment Management Co. Sells 490 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. lessened its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 18.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,177 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 490 shares during the period. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $586,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in Reliance by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $78,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abound Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Reliance by 35,700.0% during the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $288.98 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.72 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $284.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The business had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $1.20 dividend. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.17.

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.