Madison Investment Advisors LLC Invests $1.68 Million in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 10,211 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,683,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of RLI by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,393,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $680,866,000 after purchasing an additional 58,167 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of RLI by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 908,430 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $140,817,000 after purchasing an additional 50,654 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of RLI by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 813,719 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $126,110,000 after purchasing an additional 4,330 shares in the last quarter. Port Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of RLI by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Port Capital LLC now owns 759,988 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $117,783,000 after purchasing an additional 3,200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maren Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of RLI by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Maren Capital LLC now owns 674,729 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $104,570,000 after purchasing an additional 27,940 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RLI has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com raised RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on RLI from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on RLI from $100.50 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Compass Point decreased their price target on RLI from $185.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, RLI presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.80.

RLI Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of RLI opened at $75.74 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $75.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $79.33. 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 $91.15. The company has a market cap of $6.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.22 and a beta of 0.39.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The insurance provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Analysts predict that RLI Corp. will post 3.08 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. This is an increase from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. RLI’s payout ratio is presently 16.00%.

Insider Transactions at RLI

In other news, CEO Craig W. Kliethermes bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $71.35 per share, for a total transaction of $356,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 139,190 shares in the company, valued at $9,931,206.50. The trade was a 3.73 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robert P. Restrepo, Jr. sold 2,864 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.89, for a total value of $214,484.96. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,745,835.68. The trade was a 10.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders bought a total of 11,200 shares of company stock worth $805,774 over the last 90 days. 5.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.