Board of the Pension Protection Fund Acquires New Stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 9,800 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $697,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 107.3% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 1st quarter worth $30,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Colonial Trust Co SC increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 79.9% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

WRB stock traded down $0.07 on Friday, hitting $72.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,406,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,771,473. The stock has a market cap of $27.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $72.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.56. 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 Corporation has a 1 year low of $51.41 and a 1 year high of $76.38.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.43% and a return on equity of 19.66%. The business had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. Equities analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. This is an increase from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.50%. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio is currently 8.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WRB. TD Cowen cut W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday. Barclays upped their price target on W.R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $74.00 target price (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $71.42.

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.