Hancock Whitney Corp Buys Shares of 1,242 RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI)

Hancock Whitney Corp purchased a new position in shares of RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,242 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of RLI in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $80,476,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in RLI by 580.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 415,247 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $68,445,000 after acquiring an additional 354,219 shares during the period. Nepsis Inc. raised its stake in RLI by 138.8% during the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 296,526 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $48,876,000 after acquiring an additional 172,370 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in RLI by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,024,518 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $168,907,000 after acquiring an additional 116,088 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of RLI in the fourth quarter worth $17,854,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of RLI from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $95.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective 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 raised RLI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on RLI from $88.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of RLI in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.60.

RLI Price Performance

Shares of RLI stock opened at $72.99 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.49 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 12 month low of $68.50 and a 12 month high of $91.15. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $76.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $79.38.

RLI (NYSE:RLI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $36.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $442.20 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that RLI Corp. will post 3.08 EPS for the current year.

RLI Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors 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 is a positive change from RLI’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.82%. RLI’s dividend payout ratio is 19.74%.

Insider Activity at RLI

In other news, Director Jordan W. Graham sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $112,155.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $961,093.58. The trade was a 10.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert P. Restrepo, Jr. sold 2,864 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,745,835.68. The trade was 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.

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.