New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 1,228 Shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 117,284 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,228 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in RLI were worth $19,332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of RLI by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 123,173 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $20,303,000 after acquiring an additional 2,473 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake in RLI by 147.2% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 14,917 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,459,000 after purchasing an additional 8,883 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in RLI by 378.2% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,616 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 2,069 shares in the last quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in RLI by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,633 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $269,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vista Finance LLC bought a new stake in RLI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $345,000. Institutional investors own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of RLI from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on RLI from $100.50 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com upgraded RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of RLI from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, RLI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.80.

Insider Activity at RLI

In other RLI news, Director Michael J. Stone sold 400 shares of RLI stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.78, for a total transaction of $33,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 429,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,421,205.05. The trade was a 0.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jeffrey D. Fick bought 2,000 shares of RLI stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $72.13 per share, with a total value of $144,260.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 142,061 shares in the company, valued at $10,246,859.93. This trade represents a 1.43 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 11,200 shares of company stock worth $805,774. Insiders own 5.09% of the company’s stock.

RLI Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:RLI opened at $74.59 on Friday. RLI Corp. has a twelve month low of $67.53 and a twelve month high of $91.14. 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 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’s 50 day moving average price is $77.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $79.20.

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

RLI Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This is an increase from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. RLI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.49%.

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.