Millennium Management LLC Grows Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 16.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 120,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,992 shares during the quarter. Millennium Management LLC owned about 0.22% of Reliance worth $32,365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in RS. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Reliance in the 4th quarter valued at $7,352,000. Pure Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Reliance by 232.9% in the fourth quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,499,000 after purchasing an additional 6,493 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its stake in Reliance by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 48,213 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,982,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Reliance by 38.5% during the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 34,697 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,343,000 after buying an additional 9,642 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in Reliance by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 13,010 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,503,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, KeyCorp lifted their price target on Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Reliance presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $319.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total value of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,115,919.60. This trade represents a 25.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of RS opened at $303.96 on Monday. Reliance, Inc. has a twelve month low of $250.07 and a twelve month high of $326.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.69 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $284.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $290.04.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $3.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.66 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.44 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. The firm’s revenue was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.30 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd will be given a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 23rd. Reliance’s payout ratio is currently 34.41%.

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.