Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates “Sector Perform” Rating for RLI (NYSE:RLI)

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their sector perform rating on shares of RLI (NYSE:RLI) in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $155.00 price objective on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on RLI. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of RLI in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Compass Point cut their target price on shares of RLI from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of RLI from $170.00 to $165.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an outperform rating and set a $168.00 target price on shares of RLI in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $164.50.

RLI Stock Up 2.9 %

RLI stock opened at $146.97 on Wednesday. RLI has a 12 month low of $125.77 and a 12 month high of $149.20. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $141.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $142.88. The stock has a market cap of $6.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.30 and a beta of 0.41.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.37. RLI had a net margin of 20.78% and a return on equity of 18.33%. The business had revenue of $416.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $561.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. RLI’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that RLI will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st were given a dividend of $0.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 31st. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is a positive change from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. RLI’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.02%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Maren Capital LLC raised its position in shares of RLI by 21.3% during the first quarter. Maren Capital LLC now owns 612,081 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $90,876,000 after buying an additional 107,655 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of RLI by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 428,331 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $60,262,000 after buying an additional 1,979 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in RLI by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 411,787 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $54,817,000 after acquiring an additional 11,255 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in RLI in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,592,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in RLI by 14.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 265,365 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $39,400,000 after acquiring an additional 33,435 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

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.