W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB) Shares Sold by SG Americas Securities LLC

SG Americas Securities LLC cut its holdings in W. R. Berkley Co. (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 75.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 26,435 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 79,340 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC's holdings in W. R. Berkley were worth $1,881,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Curated Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of W. R. Berkley in the 1st quarter worth approximately $200,000. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI raised its holdings in W. R. Berkley by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 24,251 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,726,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of W. R. Berkley by 23.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,442 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $672,000 after acquiring an additional 1,815 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its position in W. R. Berkley by 1.0% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 37,913 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $2,698,000 after purchasing an additional 387 shares during the period. Finally, Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in W. R. Berkley in the first quarter valued at $343,000. 68.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WRB. Barclays raised their target price on W. R. Berkley from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W. R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and raised their target price for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of W. R. Berkley from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial raised their price target 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on W. R. Berkley from $73.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $70.64.

W. R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of WRB traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $73.06. 1,311,063 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,760,674. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.99. W. R. Berkley Co. has a 52-week low of $51.41 and a 52-week high of $76.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $27.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 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). The firm had revenue of $3.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.01 billion. W. R. Berkley had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 12.88%. On average, equities analysts predict that W. R. Berkley Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W. R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is an increase from W. R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. W. R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.