Sanctuary Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 6.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,710 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 691 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $3,176,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in RS. Quent Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Reliance by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 941 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 7,715 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,077,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 0.3% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 19,578 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,662,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Reliance by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 2,634 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $762,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Reliance by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 462 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total value of $1,260,618.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at $27,569,396.30. This represents a 4.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS stock opened at $301.06 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $281.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.30. 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.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid 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 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on RS. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price for the company. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price target on Reliance from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $328.17.

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.