King Luther Capital Management Corp Buys 4,113 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

King Luther Capital Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 132,306 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,113 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp owned about 0.24% of Reliance worth $35,625,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RS. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $219,841,000 after buying an additional 803,730 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Reliance by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,402,000 after acquiring an additional 252,955 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 503,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $135,546,000 after purchasing an additional 25,750 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 397,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $107,018,000 after purchasing an additional 2,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 7.3% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 296,033 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $85,616,000 after purchasing an additional 20,056 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $283.38 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $15.01 billion, a PE ratio of 18.35 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $285.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $289.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 31.09%.

Insider Activity at Reliance

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 shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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