Short Interest in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) Declines By 20.1%

Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 692,100 shares, a drop of 20.1% from the March 15th total of 866,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 246,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Currently, 1.2% of the company's stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 83,884 shares of the company's stock, valued at $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. Insiders own 0.62% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Reliance during the first quarter worth approximately $30,000. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in Reliance during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Reliance during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Reliance during the first quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on RS shares. Citigroup lowered shares of Reliance from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Reliance currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $365.67.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:RS traded down $5.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $325.53. The stock had a trading volume of 182,013 shares, compared to its average volume of 238,508. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $321.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $288.07. Reliance has a 1-year low of $229.12 and a 1-year high of $342.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.40, a PEG ratio of 5.83 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 5.66.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.81. Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.31 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.87 earnings per share. Reliance's revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance will post 19.51 earnings per share 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 represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Reliance's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.46%.

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.