Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Shares Acquired by MetLife Investment Management LLC

MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 30,504 shares of the industrial products company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,031 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC owned about 0.06% of Reliance worth $8,214,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in Reliance by 1,216.0% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $89,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Providence First Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance during the fourth quarter worth $90,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Abound Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Reliance by 35,700.0% during the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 357 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on RS. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $319.00.

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE RS traded down $0.62 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $284.54. 301,908 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 400,172. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $250.07 and a 12-month high of $326.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a market cap of $15.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.43 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $283.42 and a 200 day moving average of $289.57.

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

Reliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be given a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Reliance's dividend payout ratio is currently 34.41%.

Insider Activity

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.35% of the company's stock.

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.