Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Trims Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC reduced its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,203 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 44 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in Reliance by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,077,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Reliance by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 2,694 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $725,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Reliance by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 462 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $133,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parcion Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in Reliance by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 982 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

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 shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Reliance Price Performance

NYSE RS opened at $282.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $286.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $290.01. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week high of $342.20. The company has a market cap of $14.94 billion, a PE ratio of 18.27 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced 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 analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. 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.