RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) Shares Bought by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 127,746 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,769 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in RLI were worth $17,006,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RLI. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of RLI in the fourth quarter valued at $127,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of RLI by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 9,525 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,268,000 after buying an additional 1,413 shares during the period. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of RLI in the fourth quarter valued at $330,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of RLI in the fourth quarter valued at $1,504,000. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of RLI by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 36,470 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,855,000 after buying an additional 3,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RLI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Compass Point upped their price objective on RLI from $158.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on RLI from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on RLI from $160.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $163.25.

RLI Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE:RLI opened at $144.15 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.91 and a beta of 0.37. RLI Corp. has a 1-year low of $123.04 and a 1-year high of $149.20. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $144.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $139.06.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.63 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $444.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $460.05 million. RLI had a return on equity of 17.24% and a net margin of 20.96%. RLI’s quarterly revenue was up 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that RLI Corp. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current year.

RLI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. RLI’s payout ratio is 14.92%.

RLI 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.