Norges Bank Invests $80.48 Million in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 488,235 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $80,476,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in RLI in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in RLI by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 203 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in RLI by 76.9% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 230 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in RLI during the 4th quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in RLI by 47.0% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 497 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RLI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of RLI from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $61.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. Compass Point reduced 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. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on RLI from $100.50 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, RLI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michael E. Angelina acquired 2,200 shares of RLI stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $72.62 per share, with a total value of $159,764.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 23,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,707,586.68. The trade was a 10.32 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jeffrey D. Fick acquired 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $72.13 per share, with a total value of $144,260.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 142,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,246,859.93. This represents a 1.43 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 11,200 shares of company stock worth $805,774 in the last three months. Company insiders own 4.91% of the company’s stock.

RLI Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of RLI stock opened at $80.79 on Thursday. RLI Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $67.53 and a fifty-two week high of $91.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.34. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $79.52. The company has a market cap of $7.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 0.39.

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

RLI Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This is a boost from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. RLI’s dividend payout ratio is 16.00%.

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.