Mackenzie Financial Corp Trims Stock Position in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB)

Mackenzie Financial Corp cut its position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,642 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 6,907 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $3,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,469,608 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $83,372,000 after acquiring an additional 646,973 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 55.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,366,424 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $417,897,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,227 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 75.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,955,000 after acquiring an additional 21,737 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $915,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in W. R. Berkley by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,112 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $124,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares during the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on WRB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Stock Up 0.9%

Shares of WRB traded up $0.68 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $74.64. 4,276,324 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,771,001. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 1 year low of $51.17 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The firm's fifty day moving average is $70.32 and its 200-day moving average is $64.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44.

W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.07). W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. The company had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

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.