Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 4,817 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $343,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its stake in W. R. Berkley by 107.3% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 427 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of W. R. Berkley in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in W. R. Berkley during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Colonial Trust Co SC lifted its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 79.9% during the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 822 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WRB. Truist Financial upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group increased their price target on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 target price (up from $73.00) on shares of W. R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $70.64.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on WRB
W. R. Berkley Price Performance
Shares of WRB stock traded down $0.62 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $73.17. The stock had a trading volume of 1,619,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,763,337. The company has a market cap of $27.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 12-month low of $51.17 and a 12-month high of $76.38. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.93.
W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last released 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 analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.
W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a $0.09 dividend. This is an increase from W. R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. W. R. Berkley's payout ratio is presently 7.42%.
W. R. Berkley Profile
(
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.
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