Summit Financial LLC Decreases Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Summit Financial LLC decreased its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 37.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 840 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 498 shares during the quarter. Summit Financial LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $226,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Reliance by 157.8% during 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 period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 1,216.0% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 329 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Providence First Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at about $90,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in Reliance by 41.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on RS. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

Reliance Stock Performance

Shares of RS stock opened at $264.32 on Friday. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $288.35 and a 200 day moving average of $290.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.12 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $256.98 and a 52 week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its 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). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.09%.

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.