HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Sells 151 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC cut its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 151 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $641,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of RS. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Reliance by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 1,216.0% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the period. Providence First Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter worth about $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Reliance Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of RS opened at $289.24 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.87. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $288.99 and a 200 day moving average of $290.82.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly 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). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of 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 Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance 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.