Retirement Systems of Alabama Increases Position in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI - Free Report) by 111.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 244,502 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 128,802 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.27% of RLI worth $19,641,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in RLI by 1,077.6% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 789 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 722 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its position in RLI by 69.0% during the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 3,146 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $253,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in RLI by 415.1% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 34,745 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,790,000 after acquiring an additional 28,000 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in RLI by 70.0% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,019 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $724,000 after acquiring an additional 3,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of RLI by 111.7% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 10,467 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $841,000 after buying an additional 5,523 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.89% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of RLI in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Compass Point cut shares of RLI from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of RLI from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of RLI from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $78.60.

RLI Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of RLI stock traded up $0.53 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $72.05. The company had a trading volume of 794,102 shares, compared to its average volume of 376,712. RLI Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $68.50 and a fifty-two week high of $91.15. The company's fifty day moving average is $74.91 and its 200 day moving average is $76.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.61 billion, a PE ratio of 23.70 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.35.

RLI (NYSE:RLI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.04. RLI had a net margin of 16.22% and a return on equity of 16.26%. The firm had revenue of $36.73 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $442.20 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that RLI Corp. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This is an increase from RLI's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 30th. RLI's dividend payout ratio is presently 21.05%.

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.