Korea Investment CORP Trims Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Korea Investment CORP trimmed its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 18.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 210,978 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 48,070 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP owned about 0.06% of W. R. Berkley worth $12,346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Baxter Bros Inc. increased its position in W. R. Berkley by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. now owns 60,445 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,537,000 after buying an additional 10,091 shares in the last quarter. FineMark National Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth about $210,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $229,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of W. R. Berkley from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.36.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 7.4 %

Shares of WRB stock opened at $71.21 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $76.38. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $61.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.18. The stock has a market cap of $27.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.88% and a return on equity of 20.83%. On average, analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is currently 7.34%.

W. R. Berkley Company 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.