Amalgamated Bank Sells 605 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Amalgamated Bank reduced its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 25,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 605 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Reliance were worth $6,928,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of RS. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in Reliance during the third quarter valued at $78,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Reliance by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Abound Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 35,700.0% in the 4th quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total value of $1,260,618.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,569,396.30. This represents a 4.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Reliance Stock Performance

Reliance stock opened at $294.23 on Thursday. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $256.98 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The company’s 50-day moving average is $283.00 and its 200 day moving average is $289.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.06 and a beta of 0.90. 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 issued 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 return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The business had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 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.