Edgestream Partners L.P. Purchases Shares of 86,664 W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 86,664 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $6,167,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WRB. Optiver Holding B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 107.3% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Colonial Trust Co SC boosted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 79.9% in the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at about $59,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the subject of several research reports. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $72.00.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WRB traded down $1.66 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $67.79. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,985,375 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,796,312. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $72.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $66.61. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a one year low of $51.41 and a one year high of $76.38. The company has a market cap of $25.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.41.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released 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 19.66% and a net margin of 12.43%. The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is currently 8.35%.

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.