MetLife Investment Management LLC Cuts Holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

MetLife Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 5.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,473 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,762 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC owned 0.05% of Reliance worth $8,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Reliance from $335.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $326.40.

Reliance Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:RS opened at $322.58 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.71 and a beta of 0.85. Reliance, Inc. has a 52 week low of $261.77 and a 52 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $297.94 and a 200 day moving average of $291.39.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results 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). Reliance had a return on equity of 13.68% and a net margin of 7.42%. The firm had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $5.00 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.16%.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In other news, CFO Arthur Ajemyan sold 6,332 shares of the firm’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 value of $2,014,715.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,245 shares in the company, valued at $2,941,574.10. This trade represents a 40.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP William A. Smith II sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.71, for a total value of $2,091,115.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,849 shares in the company, 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 17,832 shares of company stock worth $5,595,881 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.69% of the company’s stock.

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.