W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB) Shares Bought by Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH

Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its holdings in W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 247,919 shares of the insurance provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,702 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH owned about 0.07% of W.R. Berkley worth $17,642,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mather Group LLC. increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 5,929 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $422,000 after buying an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,029 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $571,000 after buying an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Pullen Investment Management LLC now owns 22,954 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,343,000 after buying an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 23,237 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $1,654,000 after buying an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHB Investment Group LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. CHB Investment Group LLC now owns 50,557 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $3,598,000 after buying an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on WRB. Bank of America reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of W.R. Berkley in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered W.R. Berkley from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $74.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Truist Financial upped their price target on W.R. Berkley from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on W.R. Berkley from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $71.75.

W.R. Berkley Trading Up 0.6%

W.R. Berkley stock traded up $0.41 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $68.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,370,163 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,356,825. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.16 billion, a PE ratio of 15.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.41. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a 1 year low of $52.64 and a 1 year high of $76.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock's fifty day moving average is $71.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.14.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a return on equity of 19.22% and a net margin of 12.32%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.04 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. This is a positive change from W.R. Berkley's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 23rd. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio is presently 8.20%.

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.