Insider Selling: Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) CEO Sells 31,136 Shares of Stock

Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’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 owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Reliance Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:RS traded down $2.99 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $296.22. 479,075 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 439,424. The company’s 50 day moving average is $282.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $289.55. 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 company has a market capitalization of $16.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.19 and a beta of 0.90.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $186,255,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 1,127.9% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $114,971,000 after buying an additional 392,213 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Reliance by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,709,737 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $998,886,000 after buying an additional 319,576 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

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.