W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Holdings Lifted by Pensionfund Sabic

Pensionfund Sabic boosted its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 20.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 23,750 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the quarter. Pensionfund Sabic’s holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,390,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WRB. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in W. R. Berkley by 49.0% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 39,035 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,214,000 after purchasing an additional 12,830 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the 3rd quarter valued at $732,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 53.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 737,472 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,837,000 after acquiring an additional 257,211 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,154,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $235,701,000 after acquiring an additional 2,118,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the second quarter worth $4,801,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on WRB shares. Barclays dropped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded W. R. Berkley from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $69.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group raised their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on W. R. Berkley from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.82.

W. R. Berkley Stock Down 1.3 %

WRB stock opened at $57.18 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.79 billion, a PE ratio of 14.65, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.20. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $47.59 and a 1 year high of $65.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The insurance provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.01. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 11.96% and a return on equity of 20.41%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.93 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. W. R. Berkley’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. W. R. Berkley’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.21%.

W. R. Berkley Profile

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines.