Hendley & Co. Inc. Purchases Shares of 13,207 Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Hendley & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 13,207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,556,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Reliance in the third quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Reliance by 157.8% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Reliance during the 3rd quarter valued at $78,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Reliance by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abound Wealth Management grew its holdings in Reliance by 35,700.0% in the fourth quarter. Abound Wealth Management now owns 358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the period. 79.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Reliance Price Performance

RS stock opened at $299.55 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $282.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $289.46. The company has a market capitalization of $16.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.40 and a beta of 0.90. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $256.98 and a 52-week high of $342.20.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.74 by ($0.52). Reliance had a net margin of 6.33% and a return on equity of 11.87%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.04 billion. Research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 3,892 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.90, for a total value of $1,260,618.80. Following 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on RS. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Reliance in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $341.00 price target on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $329.17.

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.