New York State Teachers Retirement System Raises Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Key Points

• The New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation by 1.8%, owning approximately 259,625 shares valued at $19,075,000 as of the latest SEC filing.
• Several hedge funds have made significant investments in W.R. Berkley, with Czech National Bank increasing its position by 6.3% and Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec raising its stake by 70.8% in recent months.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on W.R. Berkley, with a "strong-buy" from Cantor Fitzgerald and various other ratings from other firms, reflecting a consensus "Hold" rating and an average price target of $73.69.

New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 1.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 259,625 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,694 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.07% of W.R. Berkley worth $19,075,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Czech National Bank increased its position in W.R. Berkley by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 73,255 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $5,382,000 after buying an additional 4,336 shares in the last quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec raised its stake in W.R. Berkley by 70.8% in the first quarter. Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec now owns 17,197 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $1,224,000 after buying an additional 7,131 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the second quarter valued at about $323,000. Sciencast Management LP purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at about $3,493,000. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at about $2,386,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded W.R. Berkley to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. TD Cowen cut W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 27th. UBS Group set a $87.00 price target on W.R. Berkley and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $73.00 price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $73.69.

W.R. Berkley Stock Up 0.4%

W.R. Berkley stock opened at $73.96 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $28.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.42. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $55.97 and a 52 week high of $78.48. The business's 50-day moving average price is $73.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $71.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 12.32%.During the same period last year, the company earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.20%.

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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