Dark Forest Capital Management LP Makes New $582,000 Investment in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,529 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $582,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RLI. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of RLI by 2.3% during the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,545 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $704,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of RLI during the 3rd quarter worth $1,193,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its stake in shares of RLI by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 115,569 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $17,911,000 after buying an additional 4,322 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in RLI by 53.8% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 203 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in RLI by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $171,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on RLI from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of RLI from a "buy" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of RLI from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of RLI from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Compass Point lowered shares of RLI from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $78.60.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Robert P. Restrepo, Jr. sold 2,864 shares of RLI stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.89, for a total value of $214,484.96. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,312 shares in the company, valued at $1,745,835.68. This trade represents a 10.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jordan W. Graham sold 1,500 shares of RLI stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $112,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 12,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $961,093.58. This represents a 10.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.16% of the company's stock.

RLI Stock Down 0.8 %

RLI stock traded down $0.63 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $73.39. 111,385 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 361,846. The company has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a PE ratio of 19.59 and a beta of 0.49. 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 twelve month low of $68.50 and a twelve month high of $91.15. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $76.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.27.

RLI (NYSE:RLI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.04. RLI had a net margin of 19.53% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The business had revenue of $36.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $442.20 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.95 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that RLI Corp. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.15 dividend. 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 0.82%. RLI's payout ratio is 19.74%.

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.