Sanctuary Advisors LLC Raises Stake in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) by 147.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,917 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,883 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in RLI were worth $2,459,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Motiv8 Investments LLC bought a new stake in RLI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $217,000. Donaldson Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in RLI in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,469,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in RLI in the 4th quarter valued at about $840,000. KBC Group NV raised its stake in RLI by 46.6% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,790 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in RLI by 34.1% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 36,613 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,035,000 after acquiring an additional 9,320 shares during the period. 77.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on RLI shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on RLI from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on RLI from $100.50 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Compass Point decreased their price target on RLI from $185.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com upgraded RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.80.

RLI Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE RLI opened at $74.59 on Friday. RLI Corp. has a 12 month low of $67.53 and a 12 month high of $91.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.92 and a beta of 0.46. The business has a 50-day moving average of $77.81 and a 200-day moving average of $79.20.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The insurance provider reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.64). RLI had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 19.53%. Sell-side analysts expect that RLI Corp. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This is a positive change from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. RLI’s payout ratio is presently 15.49%.

Insider Transactions at RLI

In other news, CEO Craig W. Kliethermes bought 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $71.35 per share, with a total value of $356,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 139,190 shares in the company, valued at $9,931,206.50. This represents a 3.73 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael J. Stone sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.78, for a total value of $33,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 429,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,421,205.05. This represents a 0.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 11,200 shares of company stock valued at $805,774. 5.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.