Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Sold by D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. trimmed its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 87.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,372 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 52,775 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.'s holdings in Reliance were worth $1,985,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in RS. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in Reliance by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 17,965 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $4,837,000 after purchasing an additional 1,430 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in Reliance by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,041 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,896,000 after purchasing an additional 615 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in Reliance by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 4,106 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,105,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP purchased a new stake in Reliance in the fourth quarter valued at $630,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Reliance by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 23,469 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $6,319,000 after purchasing an additional 787 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Reliance presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $319.00.

Reliance Trading Down 1.6%

RS stock opened at $299.20 on Thursday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $286.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $290.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $250.07 and a 52-week high of $326.87. The firm has a market cap of $15.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.38 and a beta of 0.91.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $3.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.66 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.44 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. Reliance's quarterly revenue was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.30 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is currently 34.41%.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.35% of the company's stock.

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.

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