W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB Stake Lessened by Interval Partners LP

Key Points

• Interval Partners LP reduced its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation by 63.3%, selling 55,000 shares and holding 31,908 shares worth $2.27 million at the end of the first quarter.
• Several hedge funds increased their stakes in W.R. Berkley, with Brighton Jones LLC boosting its position by 75.6% and Bank of America increasing its holdings by 121.1% during the fourth quarter.
• W.R. Berkley recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.08 to $0.09 per share, indicating a positive change and a dividend yield of 0.5%.

Interval Partners LP lessened its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 63.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,908 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 55,000 shares during the quarter. Interval Partners LP's holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $2,271,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 60.1% in the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 826,616 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $58,822,000 after purchasing an additional 310,313 shares in the last quarter. Greenline Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,375,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 359,895 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $25,610,000 after purchasing an additional 2,427 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 18.5% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,542,249 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $109,746,000 after purchasing an additional 240,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 18,553 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,320,000 after purchasing an additional 458 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.82% of the company's stock.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

NYSE WRB traded down $0.10 on Tuesday, hitting $72.31. The stock had a trading volume of 1,445,803 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,897,126. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a one year low of $55.80 and a one year high of $76.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $27.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.41. The company's 50-day moving average is $70.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.71.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.04 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is 8.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of W.R. Berkley to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of 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, June 27th. 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 company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $72.54.

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.