EP Wealth Advisors LLC Takes Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,161 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Reliance by 12.7% in the third quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 6,258 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,904,000 after buying an additional 703 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Reliance in the third quarter valued at $2,824,000. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at about $12,389,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Reliance by 47.6% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 4,558 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,318,000 after buying an additional 1,469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new position in Reliance during the 3rd quarter worth $41,000. 79.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total transaction of $1,260,618.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 85,117 shares in the company, valued at $27,569,396.30. This trade represents 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 at this hyperlink. Also, SVP William A. Smith II sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.71, for a total transaction of $2,091,115.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 16,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,420,491.79. The trade was a 27.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,724 shares of company stock valued at $6,856,500 over the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Reliance Price Performance

Reliance stock opened at $301.69 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $303.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $292.38. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $263.80 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The stock has a market cap of $16.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.57 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.66 by ($0.02). Reliance had a return on equity of 13.68% and a net margin of 7.42%. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $5.00 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a $1.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.16%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.