Meritage Portfolio Management Lowers Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Meritage Portfolio Management lessened its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,084 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 351 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management owned about 0.06% of Reliance worth $8,973,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of RS. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 183.6% in the 3rd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Reliance by 26.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Reliance by 187.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,030,592.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total value of $13,507,103.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at $26,963,809.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE RS traded up $0.75 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $292.88. 269,555 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 245,814. The business’s 50 day moving average is $325.69 and its 200-day moving average is $291.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 5.66. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $229.12 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.51 by ($0.21). Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $6.37 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on RS. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Citigroup lowered Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.33.

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.