South Dakota Investment Council Takes $1.80 Million Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

South Dakota Investment Council bought a new stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 6,437 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,800,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new position in Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its position in Reliance by 183.6% in the 3rd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Reliance by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Reliance by 187.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS stock opened at $313.49 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 5.66, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $229.12 and a twelve month high of $342.20. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $325.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $291.25.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.48 by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.76 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 9.02%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $6.37 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 19.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total value of $209,924.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares in the company, valued at $27,091,176.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total value of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,963,809.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878 in the last three months. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup downgraded Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.67.

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.