Hilton Capital Management LLC Purchases 257 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Hilton Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,976 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $1,609,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in Reliance by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,437 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,284,000 after purchasing an additional 788 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 1.3% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 127,806 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,963,000 after buying an additional 1,696 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 0.3% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 203,156 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,755,000 after acquiring an additional 528 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 10.8% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 872 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in Reliance by 68.8% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 139,660 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $40,391,000 after acquiring an additional 56,933 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE RS opened at $279.03 on Friday. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $256.98 and a twelve month high of $342.20. 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 has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.07 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $286.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $289.93.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released 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). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were 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 directly owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.