New York Life Investment Management LLC Makes New Investment in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

New York Life Investment Management LLC bought a new position in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 4,416 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $728,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Amalgamated Bank lifted its stake in shares of RLI by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 20,580 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,392,000 after buying an additional 695 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of RLI in the fourth quarter worth $404,000. ST. Nicholas Private Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of RLI in the fourth quarter worth $8,739,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in shares of RLI by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 10,730 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,769,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 2,473 shares during the last quarter. 77.89% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at RLI

In other RLI news, Director Michael J. Stone sold 400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.78, for a total transaction of $33,910.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 429,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,421,205.05. This represents a 0.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David B. Duclos acquired 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $72.50 per share, for a total transaction of $145,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 7,215 shares in the company, valued at approximately $523,087.50. The trade was a 38.35 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 11,200 shares of company stock valued at $805,774. 5.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

RLI Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of RLI stock opened at $75.46 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $76.75 and a 200-day moving average of $79.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.34. RLI Corp. has a 52-week low of $67.53 and a 52-week high of $91.14. The stock has a market cap of $6.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.15 and a beta of 0.46.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 19.53%. On average, equities research analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This is a positive change from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. RLI’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on RLI shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective 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. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of RLI from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $95.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of RLI from $100.50 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.80.

About RLI

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.