Patton Fund Management Inc. Sells 12,211 Shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB)

Patton Fund Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 22.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,130 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 12,211 shares during the quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc.'s holdings in W.R. Berkley were worth $2,927,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,436,473 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,132,262,000 after purchasing an additional 529,294 shares during the period. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,722,476 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $685,999,000 after buying an additional 116,957 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,694,703 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $449,168,000 after buying an additional 103,350 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 15.2% in the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,787,361 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $280,156,000 after buying an additional 632,578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley during the fourth quarter valued at about $272,582,000. 68.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. 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 note on Thursday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $70.64.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

WRB stock traded up $0.76 during trading on Friday, hitting $73.54. 3,887,055 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,767,595. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 52 week low of $51.41 and a 52 week high of $76.38. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.42.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.43% and a return on equity of 19.66%. The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 23rd. This is an increase from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. W.R. Berkley's payout ratio is currently 7.42%.

W.R. Berkley Company 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.