The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Reduces Stock Holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Key Points

• The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company reduced its stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation by 42.9%, selling over 2 million shares during the first quarter.
• W.R. Berkley reported earnings per share of $1.05 for the quarter, beating estimates, while also issuing a quarterly dividend which increased from $0.08 to $0.09.
• Brokerages have issued mixed ratings on W.R. Berkley, with Goldman Sachs lowering its rating to "hold" while UBS Group set a target price of $80.00 and maintained a "buy" rating.

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 42.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,735,341 shares of the insurance provider's stock after selling 2,052,020 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.72% of W.R. Berkley worth $194,647,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WRB. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 121.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,949,573 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $172,609,000 after buying an additional 1,615,565 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $357,368,000 after buying an additional 900,071 shares during the period. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 7,314.0% in the 1st quarter. Cornerstone Investment Partners LLC now owns 744,516 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $52,980,000 after buying an additional 734,474 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 8,709.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 671,893 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $47,812,000 after buying an additional 664,266 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in W.R. Berkley in the 1st quarter valued at $44,210,000. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WRB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, June 27th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of W.R. Berkley from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their price target for the company from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, W.R. Berkley presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB traded up $0.70 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $72.98. 286,025 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,897,911. The company has a market cap of $27.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.41. 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 Corporation has a one year low of $55.80 and a one year high of $76.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $70.39 and a 200 day moving average of $69.32.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 18.83% and a net margin of 12.32%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, equities 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is an increase from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.20%.

About W.R. Berkley

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.