Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Boosts Stock Position in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 12.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 13,671 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,502 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Reliance were worth $3,824,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Lincoln National Corp lifted its holdings in Reliance by 24.8% in the fourth quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 1,197 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its position in shares of Reliance by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,007,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Reliance by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 2,446 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $684,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 64.1% in the fourth quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC now owns 1,347 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $377,000 after purchasing an additional 526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Reliance by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC now owns 2,590 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $724,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Reliance from $355.00 to $345.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Citigroup cut shares of Reliance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $280.00 to $380.00 in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Reliance from $300.00 to $362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th.

Insider Activity at Reliance

In related news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.97, for a total value of $13,507,103.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 42,346 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 84,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,963,809.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director James Donald Hoffman sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.81, for a total transaction of $1,449,050.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 49,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,212,862.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 100,996 shares of company stock worth $31,966,978 in the last 90 days. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Reliance Stock Up 1.1 %

NYSE RS traded up $3.25 on Tuesday, hitting $295.41. 438,149 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 256,546. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $320.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $293.39. Reliance, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $229.12 and a fifty-two week high of $342.20. The company has a quick ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 5.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $16.97 billion, a PE ratio of 13.65, a PEG ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 0.92.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $5.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.51 by ($0.21). Reliance had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 16.26%. The company had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $6.37 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Reliance, Inc. will post 19.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 7th. Investors of record on Friday, May 24th will be given a $1.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.55%.

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.