W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,796,835 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,751 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.47% of W. R. Berkley worth $105,151,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 48.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,121,001 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $857,814,000 after acquiring an additional 4,947,830 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 51.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 11,321,958 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $642,294,000 after acquiring an additional 3,825,238 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 211.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 47.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,591,353 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $429,266,000 after acquiring an additional 2,459,073 shares during the period. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.6 %

WRB opened at $62.57 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $59.98 and a 200-day moving average of $59.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.36 and a quick ratio of 0.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a fifty-two week low of $50.73 and a fifty-two week high of $65.49. The company has a market capitalization of $23.73 billion, a PE ratio of 14.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.63.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.18. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Equities research analysts forecast that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley’s payout ratio is 7.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays increased their price target 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on W. R. Berkley in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.36.

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.