Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV Acquires Shares of 123,594 W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV acquired a new stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 123,594 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,233,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter worth $272,582,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $417,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 211.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,674,171 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $208,436,000 after acquiring an additional 2,493,758 shares in the last quarter. Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter worth approximately $98,446,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at $89,691,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group boosted their target price on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W. R. Berkley has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock traded up $0.26 on Tuesday, reaching $72.75. The company had a trading volume of 1,404,449 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,763,287. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $27.60 billion, a PE ratio of 16.67, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $66.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.36. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $51.17 and a 52-week high of $76.38.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W. R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is currently 7.42%.

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.