RLI Corp. (RLI) will pay a special cash dividend of $1.00 per share together with the Q4 regular quarterly dividend. Earlier this year the insurer already raised its quarterly dividend by 4.8 percent to $0.22 per share.

Both dividends (for a total of $1.22 per share) are payable on December 27, 2018, to shareholders of record as of November 30, 2018.

The regular annualized dividend of $0.88 per share yields 1.2% at a stock price of $73.86. The special dividend yields an extra 1.4% for RLI in the fourth quarter of 2018.

“RLI has experienced strong momentum in 2018, as evidenced by growth across our product portfolio,” said RLI Chairman & CEO Jonathan E. Michael. “Our strategy has always emphasized putting our capital to work to support profitable underwriting initiatives first, and that’s exactly what we have accomplished. In 2018, we experienced higher-than-average catastrophe losses. With the addition of Hurricane Michael, our year-to-date pre-tax net catastrophe losses are expected to be in the range of $40 to $45 million. Despite these catastrophes, we are pleased to be able to continue rewarding shareholders with a special dividend derived from our strong earnings and book value growth.”

RLI Corp. is a specialty insurer serving diverse, niche property, casualty and surety markets. RLI's products are offered through its insurance subsidiaries RLI Insurance Company, Mt. Hawley Insurance Company and Contractors Bonding and Insurance Company.