RLI (RLI) Competitors

RLI (NYSE:RLI) and W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, community ranking, earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Do analysts recommend RLI or WRB?

RLI presently has a consensus price target of $82.80, suggesting a potential upside of 4.45%. W. R. Berkley has a consensus price target of $64.36, suggesting a potential downside of 3.04%. Given RLI's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe RLI is more favorable than W. R. Berkley.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
RLI	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
W. R. Berkley	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38

Does the media refer more to RLI or WRB?

In the previous week, W. R. Berkley had 4 more articles in the media than RLI. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for W. R. Berkley and 11 mentions for RLI. RLI's average media sentiment score of 1.32 beat W. R. Berkley's score of 1.29 indicating that RLI is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
RLI	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
W. R. Berkley	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is RLI or WRB more profitable?

RLI has a net margin of 19.53% compared to W. R. Berkley's net margin of 12.88%. W. R. Berkley's return on equity of 20.83% beat RLI's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
RLI	19.53%	16.63%	4.76%
W. R. Berkley	12.88%	20.83%	4.27%

Is RLI or WRB a better dividend stock?

RLI pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. W. R. Berkley pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. RLI pays out 16.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. W. R. Berkley pays out 7.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. RLI has raised its dividend for 51 consecutive years and W. R. Berkley has raised its dividend for 23 consecutive years. RLI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in RLI or WRB?

77.9% of RLI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.8% of W. R. Berkley shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.1% of RLI shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.0% of W. R. Berkley shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better valuation and earnings, RLI or WRB?

W. R. Berkley has higher revenue and earnings than RLI. W. R. Berkley is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than RLI, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
RLI	$1.77B	4.11	$345.78M	$3.75	21.14
W. R. Berkley	$13.69B	1.84	$1.76B	$4.36	15.22

Does the MarketBeat Community favor RLI or WRB?

W. R. Berkley received 68 more outperform votes than RLI when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 55.21% of users gave RLI an outperform vote while only 51.06% of users gave W. R. Berkley an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
RLI	Outperform Votes 270 55.21%	Underperform Votes 219 44.79%
W. R. Berkley	Outperform Votes 338 51.06%	Underperform Votes 324 48.94%

Which has more risk and volatility, RLI or WRB?

RLI has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W. R. Berkley has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

W. R. Berkley beats RLI on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.