Brokerages Set RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) Price Target at $78.60

RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $78.60.

RLI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded RLI from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $61.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com upgraded RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of RLI from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Compass Point downgraded shares of RLI from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th.

Insider Activity at RLI

In related news, Director Jordan W. Graham sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $112,155.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 12,854 shares in the company, valued at $961,093.58. The trade was a 10.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robert P. Restrepo, Jr. sold 2,864 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.89, for a total transaction of $214,484.96. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,312 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,745,835.68. This represents a 10.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.16% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On RLI

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RLI. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in RLI by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 203 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of RLI by 31.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $171,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of RLI in the 4th quarter worth $208,000. Atlas Brown Inc. acquired a new stake in RLI in the 4th quarter valued at $285,000. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in RLI by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 1,827 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $301,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

RLI Stock Performance

RLI stock opened at $74.60 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market cap of $6.85 billion, a PE ratio of 19.92 and a beta of 0.72. RLI has a 12-month low of $68.50 and a 12-month high of $91.15. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $76.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $78.96.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.04. RLI had a net margin of 19.53% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The company had revenue of $36.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $442.20 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that RLI will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. RLI’s dividend payout ratio is 19.74%.

About RLI

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.