Allstate Corp Takes Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Allstate Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $451,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of RS. DnB Asset Management AS increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 12,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,283,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at $282,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter worth about $133,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 4th quarter worth about $186,255,000. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 48,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,982,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp increased their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently 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 Reliance 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 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. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of Reliance stock opened at $289.24 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $288.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $290.82. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $256.98 and a 12 month high of $342.20. 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 (NYSE:RS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). The business had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. As a group, analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.