Renaissance Technologies LLC Sells 38,700 Shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

Renaissance Technologies LLC reduced its position in RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI - Free Report) by 86.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,000 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 38,700 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC's holdings in RLI were worth $989,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in RLI by 2.3% during the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,545 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $704,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in RLI during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,193,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its position in RLI by 3.9% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 115,569 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $17,911,000 after purchasing an additional 4,322 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in RLI by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 203 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in RLI by 31.8% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,035 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $171,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. 77.89% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at RLI

In other RLI news, Director Jordan W. Graham sold 1,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $112,155.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 12,854 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $961,093.58. This represents a 10.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert P. Restrepo, Jr. sold 2,864 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.89, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.16% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on RLI shares. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of RLI in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of RLI from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of RLI from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Compass Point cut shares of RLI from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of RLI from a "buy" rating to an "underperform" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, RLI has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $78.60.

RLI Stock Performance

Shares of RLI stock opened at $73.84 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.34 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 stock has a market cap of $6.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.72 and a beta of 0.49. The company's fifty day moving average is $76.37 and its 200 day moving average is $79.27.

RLI (NYSE:RLI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $36.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $442.20 million. RLI had a net margin of 19.53% and a return on equity of 16.63%. RLI's revenue for the quarter was down 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that RLI Corp. will post 3.08 EPS for the current year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.81%. This is a boost from RLI's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. RLI's dividend 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.

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