Cambridge Trust Co. Trims Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Cambridge Trust Co. lowered its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 8.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 843 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 78 shares during the period. Cambridge Trust Co.’s holdings in Reliance were worth $236,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in Reliance by 12.3% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 19,601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,482,000 after acquiring an additional 2,143 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in Reliance by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 13,010 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,639,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. boosted its position in Reliance by 23.8% in the 4th quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. now owns 1,077 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. Flputnam Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 10,262 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,870,000 after acquiring an additional 1,473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter worth $447,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $968,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,030,592.15. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at $5,030,592.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $12,918,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 54,042 shares in the company, valued at $17,452,863.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup cut Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $365.67.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS opened at $319.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 5.66 and a quick ratio of 3.23. Reliance, Inc. has a 1-year low of $229.12 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The stock has a market cap of $18.35 billion, a PE ratio of 14.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.64 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $324.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $289.97.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.81. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.31 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 9.02%. The business’s revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $5.87 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $1.10 dividend. This is an increase from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 19.46%.

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.