Natixis Advisors LLC Sells 2,430 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Natixis Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,943 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 2,430 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $4,562,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake 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 valued at $219,841,000 after buying an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 53.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 5.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 0.7% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 7.3% in 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 during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on RS. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp raised their target price on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS opened at $276.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 1.58. Reliance, Inc. has a one year low of $256.98 and a one year high of $342.20. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $288.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $289.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a PE ratio of 17.93 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. 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. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

Reliance Company Profile

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.