Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Raises Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) by 27.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,611 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,950 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned 0.06% of Reliance worth $9,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Reliance by 378.5% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,919 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,655,000 after purchasing an additional 4,682 shares during the last quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. United Capital Management of KS Inc. now owns 26,668 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $6,993,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 35.2% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 47,759 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $13,357,000 after acquiring an additional 12,423 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 210,218 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $55,125,000 after acquiring an additional 28,889 shares during the period. Finally, Comerica Bank purchased a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $8,173,000. Institutional investors own 79.26% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on RS shares. 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. 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, Citigroup downgraded Reliance from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $365.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,030,592.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Reliance news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,030,592.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owns 83,884 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,091,176.64. 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 ninety days. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Reliance Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of Reliance stock traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $313.56. The company had a trading volume of 300,990 shares, compared to its average volume of 237,314. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 5.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.87, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $325.31 and a 200 day moving average of $291.25. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $229.12 and a 52-week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 9.02%. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.31 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.87 EPS. The company's revenue was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend 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 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.