Natixis Advisors LLC Has $93.92 Million Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Key Points

• Natixis Advisors increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 9.0% to 1,225,763 shares, worth about $93.92 million (roughly 0.32% of the company) at the end of the quarter.
• Large institutions are active: Vanguard holds ~36.96M shares (~$2.72B), Norges Bank initiated a new position worth about $367.9M, and institutional investors collectively own about 68.82% of WRB.
• Analysts are split with a consensus "Hold" and $69.67 target; WRB reported $1.13 EPS (missed by $0.01), pays a 0.5% yield, and insiders have bought ~9.93M shares in the past 90 days (including Sumitomo's 370k-share purchase).

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 9.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,225,763 shares of the insurance provider's stock after buying an additional 101,040 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.32% of W.R. Berkley worth $93,918,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,961,788 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,715,583,000 after acquiring an additional 625,685 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 3.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,189,248 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $599,271,000 after purchasing an additional 289,172 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in W.R. Berkley by 8.6% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,274,234 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $534,438,000 after purchasing an additional 577,873 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in W.R. Berkley by 4.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,241,509 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $401,607,000 after purchasing an additional 242,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in W.R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at about $367,921,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at W.R. Berkley

In other W.R. Berkley news, major shareholder Sumitomo Insurance Co L. Mitsui bought 370,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $67.07 per share, for a total transaction of $24,815,900.00. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 54,959,504 shares in the company, valued at $3,686,133,933.28. This trade represents a 0.68% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 9,933,862 shares of company stock worth $688,134,108. 23.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WRB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $73.00 price target on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $66.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Truist Financial set a $80.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "sell" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $77.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $69.67.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

NYSE WRB opened at $69.93 on Monday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $60.68 and a 1 year high of $78.96. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $26.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.35.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 26th. The insurance provider reported $1.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.01). W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.17% and a net margin of 12.10%.The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.13 EPS. The business's revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 23rd were paid a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is presently 8.09%.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation NYSE: WRB is a publicly traded insurance holding company that underwrites and sells commercial property and casualty insurance, specialty insurance products, and reinsurance. Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, the company operates a portfolio of underwriting businesses that focus on niche and specialty commercial risks, offering coverage tailored to industries such as transportation, construction, professional services and other commercial lines.

The company's product mix includes primary and excess casualty, property, professional liability, environmental and other specialty lines, together with treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions.

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