Bessemer Group Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,898 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $4,011,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Reliance by 10.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 76,131 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $22,017,000 after purchasing an additional 7,373 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in Reliance by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 8,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,371,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Reliance by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 2,819 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $815,000 after buying an additional 376 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Reliance by 7.8% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 11,401 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,640,000 after buying an additional 827 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the third quarter worth approximately $4,600,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS opened at $279.38 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $285.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $290.06. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $250.07 and a 52-week high of $330.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. Reliance’s payout ratio is 31.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $319.00.

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.