Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Trims Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio decreased its position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 26.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 27,727 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,784 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Reliance were worth $8,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in Reliance by 78.5% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 289,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $82,816,000 after acquiring an additional 127,422 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 27,269.0% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 112,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $32,453,000 after purchasing an additional 111,803 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Reliance by 19.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 472,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $136,718,000 after purchasing an additional 77,937 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Reliance by 68.8% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 139,660 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $40,391,000 after buying an additional 56,933 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Reliance by 4.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,168,880 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $333,809,000 after buying an additional 53,747 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of Reliance stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total value of $1,260,618.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at $27,569,396.30. The trade was a 4.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 6,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $318.18, for a total transaction of $2,014,715.76. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,941,574.10. This trade represents a 40.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,724 shares of company stock worth $6,856,500. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Reliance Price Performance

Shares of RS opened at $301.69 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.57 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $263.80 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $303.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $292.38.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The industrial products company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.66 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 13.68% and a net margin of 7.42%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.00 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.16%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on RS. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $328.83.

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.