Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Acquired by Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 0.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $3,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth 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. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Reliance by 53.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Reliance by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $135,546,000 after purchasing an additional 25,750 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Reliance by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 397,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $107,018,000 after purchasing an additional 2,921 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in shares of Reliance by 7.3% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $85,616,000 after purchasing an additional 20,056 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance 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 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS stock opened at $283.38 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $285.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $289.99. Reliance, Inc. has a 12 month low of $256.98 and a 12 month high of $342.20. The company has a market capitalization of $15.01 billion, a PE ratio of 18.35 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Reliance’s payout ratio 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.