Kennedy Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Kennedy Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,719 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,668 shares during the quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $14,464,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of RS. Capital Fund Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,929,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 14,898 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,011,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $20,640,000. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 8,557 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,225,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Reliance by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 10,122 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,725,000 after acquiring an additional 616 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 6.6 %

NYSE RS opened at $279.38 on Thursday. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $250.07 and a twelve month high of $334.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market cap of $14.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $286.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $290.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its 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). The firm had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. Equities analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.20 dividend. This is a boost 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%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average 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.