KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Makes New Investment in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 20,100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,412,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Trust N.A. acquired a new stake in Reliance in the third quarter valued at $304,000. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in Reliance by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 47,179 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,645,000 after buying an additional 3,901 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 6.3% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,710 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,172 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its position in Reliance by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 42,881 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,402,000 after purchasing an additional 11,887 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Reliance by 4.8% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,518 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,885,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Reliance currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 2.1 %

Reliance stock opened at $293.30 on Wednesday. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week high of $342.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.00 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $288.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

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.