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

South Dakota Investment Council bought a new position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 6,437 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,800,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in Reliance by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,086 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $388,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Reliance by 113.0% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,706 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $447,000 after buying an additional 905 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in shares of Reliance by 57.9% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 3,072 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $806,000 after buying an additional 1,126 shares during the period. Finally, Occidental Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Reliance by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 14,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,801,000 after buying an additional 534 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE RS opened at $313.49 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $325.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $291.25. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $229.12 and a 12-month high of $342.20. 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 company has a market cap of $18.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.87, a PEG ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.48 by ($0.18). Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $6.37 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

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