Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Sells 50,921 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank trimmed its position in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 78.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,722 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 50,921 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Reliance were worth $3,838,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 35.4% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 723,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,790,000 after purchasing an additional 189,326 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 68.6% during the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 193,347 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,699,000 after purchasing an additional 78,699 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 6.0% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 675,801 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $177,215,000 after purchasing an additional 37,971 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 26.2% during the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 171,614 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $45,002,000 after purchasing an additional 35,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 536,462 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $150,038,000 after purchasing an additional 35,627 shares during the last quarter. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total value of $968,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at $5,030,592.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total transaction of $13,507,103.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at $26,963,809.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.95, for a total transaction of $968,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,577 shares in the company, valued at $5,030,592.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 85,996 shares of company stock worth $27,603,878. Company insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 0.1 %

RS opened at $319.76 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $324.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $290.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 5.66. The firm has a market cap of $18.36 billion, a PE ratio of 14.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.63 and a beta of 0.87. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $229.12 and a twelve month high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $4.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.81. The company had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.31 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 9.02% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $5.87 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.51 EPS for the current year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $1.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on RS shares. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Reliance from $295.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Reliance currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.67.

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.