Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 9,919 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $580,000.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Amundi raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 43.1% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,477,932 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $85,853,000 after acquiring an additional 444,986 shares during the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth $982,000. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley during the fourth quarter worth $560,000. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,967 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $304,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Financial Strategies Group Inc. raised its position in shares of W. R. Berkley by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Financial Strategies Group Inc. now owns 119,327 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $6,766,000 after acquiring an additional 4,363 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.
W. R. Berkley Stock Down 0.5%
NYSE:WRB opened at $73.47 on Wednesday. W. R. Berkley Co. has a twelve month low of $51.17 and a twelve month high of $76.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $68.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.42.
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 for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. Equities research analysts expect that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
W. R. Berkley Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is 7.42%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research firms recently commented on WRB. StockNews.com downgraded W. R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday. Barclays upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of W. R. Berkley in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $70.06.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on WRB
W. R. Berkley Company Profile
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Free Report)
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.
See Also
Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WRB? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report).
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