New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 494 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $133,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth about $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Reliance by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 1,216.0% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after buying an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 41.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Reliance Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE RS opened at $294.43 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.07 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $289.13 and a 200-day moving average of $290.84.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on RS. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Reliance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.