Boston Partners Increases Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Boston Partners boosted its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 716,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,528 shares during the period. Boston Partners’ holdings in Reliance were worth $192,894,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quent Capital LLC boosted its position in Reliance by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in Reliance by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 11,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,002,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Reliance by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,077,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in Reliance by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 4,333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,167,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in Reliance by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,234 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $332,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Up 0.4 %

RS stock opened at $280.45 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market cap of $14.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.16 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $287.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $289.91.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results 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). The business 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%. On average, equities 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 given a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Reliance currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.