USA Financial Formulas Purchases Shares of 11,440 W.R. Berkley Corporation $WRB

Key Points

• USA Financial Formulas has acquired a new stake in W.R. Berkley Corporation, purchasing 11,440 shares valued at approximately $840,000 during the second quarter.
• A significant portion of W.R. Berkley's shares, approximately 68.82%, is owned by institutional investors, indicating strong institutional interest in the company.
• W.R. Berkley recently reported earnings of $1.05 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations and revealing a revenue of $3.10 billion.

USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in shares of W.R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE:WRB - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 11,440 shares of the insurance provider's stock, valued at approximately $840,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its stake in W.R. Berkley by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 11,787,639 shares of the insurance provider's stock valued at $838,808,000 after purchasing an additional 65,163 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,022,039 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $357,368,000 after acquiring an additional 900,071 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,539,691 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $180,724,000 after acquiring an additional 52,594 shares during the last quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC now owns 1,842,275 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $131,096,000 after acquiring an additional 160,017 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in W.R. Berkley by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,822,617 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $129,697,000 after acquiring an additional 25,782 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.82% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WRB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of W.R. Berkley to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of W.R. Berkley from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $78.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of W.R. Berkley from $71.00 to $68.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of W.R. Berkley in a report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a "peer perform" rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $72.54.

W.R. Berkley Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WRB opened at $75.44 on Thursday. The company's 50-day moving average is $71.87 and its 200 day moving average is $70.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37. The company has a market capitalization of $28.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.42. W.R. Berkley Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $55.97 and a fifty-two week high of $76.97.

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. W.R. Berkley had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 18.83%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.04 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that W.R. Berkley Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

W.R. Berkley Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 22nd. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. W.R. Berkley's dividend payout ratio is 8.20%.

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.

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