RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) Stock Rated “Reduce” by Sell-Side Analysts

Shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) have been given an average rating of “Reduce” by the six research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $62.00.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on RLI shares. Jefferies Financial Group cut RLI from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $53.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. UBS Group set a $74.00 price target on RLI in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $51.00 price target (down from $57.00) on shares of RLI in a research report on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $70.00) on shares of RLI in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RLI. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in RLI by 78.3% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,865 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 4,331 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of RLI by 62.1% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 629 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 241 shares during the period. Everhart Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of RLI in the third quarter valued at about $287,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in shares of RLI in the second quarter valued at about $5,765,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of RLI by 14,471.9% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,663 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $275,000 after acquiring an additional 4,631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

RLI Stock Performance

RLI opened at $59.53 on Friday. RLI has a 52-week low of $47.26 and a 52-week high of $67.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.46 billion, a PE ratio of 12.51 and a beta of 0.36. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.74.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $575.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $568.70 million. RLI had a return on equity of 17.61% and a net margin of 22.22%. The business’s revenue was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.82 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that RLI will post 2.90 earnings per share for the current year.

RLI Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 31st were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 31st. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. RLI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.13%.

RLI Company Profile

RLI Corp. is a specialty insurance company that underwrites a broad range of property and casualty insurance products for individuals, businesses and organizations. Its offerings include commercial casualty coverage, property insurance, surety bonds, transportation-related insurance, professional liability and personal umbrella policies.

The company serves specialty markets that may be underserved by standard insurance providers. RLI distributes its products through independent agents and brokers, with business conducted primarily throughout the United States and coverage available across many industries, professions and geographic regions.

RLI was founded in 1965 as Replacement Lens, Inc, initially providing replacement coverage for automobile windshield lenses before expanding into specialty insurance.