Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI Takes Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI bought a new stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 862 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000.

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

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.96, for a total transaction of $209,924.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 83,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,091,176.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $12,918,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 54,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,452,863.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 85,996 shares of company stock valued at $27,603,878 over the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on RS shares. Citigroup downgraded Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Reliance has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.67.

Reliance Stock Up 0.1 %

RS opened at $319.76 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $18.36 billion, a PE ratio of 14.14, a P/E/G ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 3.23, a current ratio of 5.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $229.12 and a 52 week high of $342.20. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $324.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.81. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.31 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 9.02%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.87 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Reliance’s dividend 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.