South Dakota Investment Council Buys Shares of 6,437 Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

South Dakota Investment Council acquired a new stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 6,437 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $1,800,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of RS. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Reliance during the third quarter valued at $33,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its stake in Reliance by 183.6% during the third quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 207 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Reliance by 26.4% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 230 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Reliance by 187.9% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 285 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the completion of 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Reliance news, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $12,918,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,030,592.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their target price for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $365.67.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of Reliance stock traded down $21.36 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $292.21. The company's stock had a trading volume of 920,145 shares, compared to its average volume of 245,848. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $325.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $291.40. Reliance, Inc. has a one year low of $229.12 and a one year high of $342.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 5.66 and a quick ratio of 3.23. The stock has a market cap of $16.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance's previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. 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.