Northern Trust Corp Trims Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Key Points

• Northern Trust Corp reduced its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation by 1.3% in Q1, owning approximately 3.2 million shares, worth about $230 million.
• W.R. Berkley recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.08 to $0.09, representing a 0.5% yield, with a low payout ratio of 8.20%.
• Analysts have set a new average price target of $72.54 for W.R. Berkley, with mixed ratings ranging from "Strong Buy" to "Sell" based on recent reports.

Northern Trust Corp trimmed its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 1.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,237,363 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 42,327 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 0.85% of W.R. Berkley worth $230,371,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in W.R. Berkley by 75.6% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 50,503 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,955,000 after buying an additional 21,737 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $5,676,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main purchased a new position in shares of W.R. Berkley during the 4th quarter valued at $663,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 247,919 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $17,642,000 after purchasing an additional 7,702 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 43,248 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $2,531,000 after purchasing an additional 4,159 shares in the last quarter. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

W.R. Berkley Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $72.4920 on Friday. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52-week low of $55.80 and a 52-week high of $76.38. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $70.63 and a 200 day moving average of $68.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.50 billion, a PE ratio of 16.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37.

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

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd were paid a $0.09 dividend. This is a boost from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of W.R. Berkley to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Profile

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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