Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Lowers Position in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lessened its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 4.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 220,827 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 10,446 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned about 0.06% of W.R. Berkley worth $15,714,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Pullen Investment Management LLC boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 22,954 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,343,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. CHB Investment Group LLC lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. CHB Investment Group LLC now owns 50,557 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $3,598,000 after buying an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,289 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 107.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 8,278 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $567,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 target price (up previously from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Wall Street Zen lowered W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on 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. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on W.R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $70.64.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of WRB opened at $72.70 on Thursday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52-week low of $51.41 and a 52-week high of $76.38. The company has a market capitalization of $27.58 billion, a PE ratio of 16.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.15. 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 issued its earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a $0.09 dividend. 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.50%. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.42%.

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.

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