American Century Companies Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1,127.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 426,986 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 392,213 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $114,971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in 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 last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 53.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Reliance during the 4th quarter worth about $46,979,000. Woodward Diversified Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $21,015,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $20,640,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on RS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price target 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 upgraded Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $276.77 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $288.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.97. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company has a market cap of $14.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.93 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. Research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

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.