Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 75,128 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lowered its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 3.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,871,917 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 75,128 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 0.49% of W.R. Berkley worth $133,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of WRB. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 66.3% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,356 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $138,000 after buying an additional 939 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 6,326 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 650 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in W.R. Berkley by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 17,563 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,028,000 after buying an additional 1,295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,527,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on WRB. Wall Street Zen downgraded W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. UBS Group boosted their price target on W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on W.R. Berkley from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $72.00.

W.R. Berkley Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE WRB traded down $0.68 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $69.07. 3,123,112 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,794,099. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.29. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1-year low of $51.41 and a 1-year high of $76.38. The firm has a market cap of $26.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.03, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released 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). W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.66% and a net margin of 12.43%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 8.35%.

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.