RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $177.40.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on RLI shares. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on RLI in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Compass Point raised their price target on shares of RLI from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of RLI from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of RLI from $162.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of RLI in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $182.00 target price for the company.

Insider Buying and Selling at RLI

In other RLI news, Director Michael J. Stone sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.55, for a total value of $33,910.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 214,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,421,205.05. This trade represents a 0.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 5.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RLI. State Street Corp raised its position in RLI by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,393,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $680,866,000 after acquiring an additional 58,167 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of RLI by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 931,454 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $131,045,000 after purchasing an additional 24,125 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in RLI by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 908,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $140,817,000 after buying an additional 50,654 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in RLI by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 813,719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $126,110,000 after buying an additional 4,330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Port Capital LLC increased its stake in RLI by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Port Capital LLC now owns 759,988 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $117,783,000 after buying an additional 3,200 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

RLI Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of RLI stock opened at $162.64 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $169.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.87 and a beta of 0.47. RLI has a 52 week low of $132.30 and a 52 week high of $182.29.

RLI shares are going to split on Thursday, January 16th. The 2-1 split was announced on Thursday, November 7th. The newly minted shares will be payable to shareholders after the closing bell on Wednesday, January 15th.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $470.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $491.54 million. RLI had a net margin of 23.77% and a return on equity of 19.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 41.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that RLI will post 5.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a None dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a dividend of $4.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This is an increase from RLI’s previous None dividend of $2.25. This represents a yield of 0.7%. RLI’s dividend payout ratio is 12.75%.

RLI Company Profile

RLI Corp., an insurance holding company, underwrites property and casualty insurance. Its Casualty segment provides commercial and personal coverage products; and general liability products, such as coverage for third-party liability of commercial insureds, including manufacturers, contractors, apartments, and mercantile.