Flputnam Investment Management Co. Sells 490 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. cut its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 18.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,177 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 490 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $586,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position 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 worth $219,841,000 after buying an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 252,955 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Reliance by 5.4% during the 4th 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. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its position in Reliance by 7.3% during the 3rd 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Reliance by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 285,871 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $82,677,000 after purchasing an additional 1,499 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS opened at $288.98 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $284.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $289.87. The stock has a market cap of $15.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.72 and a beta of 0.91. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week 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.

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). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company 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 $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on RS shares. Wolfe Research upgraded 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 target price for the company. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

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.