California Public Employees Retirement System Boosts Stock Position in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 202,696 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in RLI were worth $33,410,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in RLI by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 203 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of RLI by 76.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 230 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of RLI by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,545 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $704,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management raised its position in RLI by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 1,827 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Finally, Everhart Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in RLI by 10.0% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on RLI shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on RLI from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of RLI from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $61.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of RLI from $100.50 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other RLI news, insider Jeffrey D. Fick purchased 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $72.13 per share, for a total transaction of $144,260.00. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 142,061 shares in the company, valued at $10,246,859.93. The trade was a 1.43 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert P. Restrepo, Jr. sold 2,864 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.89, for a total transaction of $214,484.96. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,312 shares in the company, valued at $1,745,835.68. The trade was a 10.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 11,200 shares of company stock worth $805,774. 4.91% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

RLI Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE RLI opened at $80.79 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $75.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.41 billion, a PE ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. RLI Corp. has a 12 month low of $67.53 and a 12 month high of $91.15.

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%. Equities analysts expect that RLI Corp. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors 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 positive change from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. RLI’s payout ratio is currently 16.00%.

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.