W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by Heartland Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• Heartland Advisors Inc. reduced its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation by 24.2% during the 1st quarter, selling 58,546 shares and holding 183,590 shares valued at $13.06 million as of the latest filing.
• The company recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.08 to $0.09 per share, with an annualized dividend yield of 0.53%.
• W.R. Berkley reported earnings of $1.05 per share for the latest quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates of $1.03 and maintaining a revenue of $3.10 billion.

Heartland Advisors Inc. decreased its position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 24.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 183,590 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 58,546 shares during the period. Heartland Advisors Inc.'s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $13,064,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stevens Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 75.0% in the 1st quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 12,657 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $901,000 after buying an additional 5,425 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 39.6% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 137,668 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $9,796,000 after purchasing an additional 39,048 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 56,420 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $4,015,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. acquired a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at $227,000. Finally, Jackson Hole Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the first quarter valued at $240,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $71.75.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB traded up $0.41 during trading on Friday, reaching $68.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,370,163 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,356,825. The company has a market cap of $26.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.71, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.20. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $52.64 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.22% and a net margin of 12.32%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate 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 given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

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.