Ascent Group LLC Has $282,000 Stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Ascent Group LLC lowered its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 6.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 63 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $282,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Reliance by 20.8% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,072,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $358,270,000 after acquiring an additional 184,509 shares during the period. 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. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Reliance by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 885,818 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $247,746,000 after purchasing an additional 64,895 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 21.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 348,534 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $116,473,000 after buying an additional 61,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in shares of Reliance by 51.2% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 177,771 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $49,719,000 after buying an additional 60,229 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Price Performance

RS stock opened at $289.96 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $284.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $296.39. Reliance, Inc. has a 12-month low of $237.14 and a 12-month high of $342.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.54 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The industrial products company reported $4.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.73 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. Reliance had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 14.73%. Reliance’s revenue was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $6.49 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Reliance, Inc. will post 17.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 20.55%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Reliance from $341.00 to $325.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Reliance from $340.00 to $335.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of Reliance from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $262.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, July 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $329.40.

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.