Norges Bank Acquires New Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 691,729 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $186,255,000. Norges Bank owned approximately 1.28% of Reliance at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after acquiring an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 53.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after buying an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of Reliance by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 716,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $192,894,000 after buying an additional 50,528 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $135,546,000 after buying an additional 25,750 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in Reliance by 1,127.9% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $114,971,000 after acquiring an additional 392,213 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on RS. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS opened at $286.34 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The stock has a market cap of $15.17 billion, a PE ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $289.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.64.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS 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 given a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.09%.

Reliance Company 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.