Brevan Howard Capital Management LP Trims Stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Brevan Howard Capital Management LP trimmed its stake in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 16.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,239 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 4,637 shares during the quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,360,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Bridgefront Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $440,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in shares of W. R. Berkley by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 43,248 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,531,000 after buying an additional 4,159 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,856 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $460,000 after buying an additional 1,102 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth $1,406,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 121.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,949,573 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $172,609,000 after purchasing an additional 1,615,565 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $74.00 target price (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Truist Financial increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $68.39.

W. R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of W. R. Berkley stock traded down $0.17 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $72.03. The company had a trading volume of 355,741 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,962,131. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $62.83. W. R. Berkley Co. has a one year low of $51.17 and a one year high of $76.38. The firm has a market cap of $27.33 billion, a PE ratio of 16.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. 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 (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, analysts anticipate 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is 7.42%.

About W. R. Berkley

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.