Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Sells 11,978 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp cut its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 11.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 90,834 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 11,978 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp’s holdings in Reliance were worth $24,458,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Trust N.A. acquired a new position in Reliance during the third quarter worth approximately $304,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 47,179 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $13,645,000 after acquiring an additional 3,901 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in Reliance by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,710 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,172 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Reliance by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 6,518 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,885,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in Reliance during the third quarter worth $429,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on RS shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp increased 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Reliance in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 target price on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

NYSE RS opened at $293.85 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $289.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $290.28. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $256.98 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The company has a market capitalization of $15.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). The business had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. Analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is 31.09%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $27,115,919.60. This represents a 25.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Reliance 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.